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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  •  SAN  DIEGO  %£<S§£&i%8ri 

by 

FRIENDS  OF  THE  LIBRARY 

MR.   JOHN  C.   ROSE 


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"I    HUMMED   A  GAY    LITTLE   TUNE    FOR   HIS   BENEFIT.1 


FAIR  TO  LOOK  UPON 


BY 

MARY   BELLE   FREELEY 


WITH     ORIGINAL    ILLUSTRATIONS     BY 
W.      L.      DODGE 


CHICAGO 
MORRILL,    HIGGINS    &    CO. 


COPYRIGHT: 

MORRILL,  HIGGINS  &>  CO. 
1892 


CONTENTS. 

A  RIPPLE  OF  DISSENSION  AND  WHAT  CAME 

OF  IT  -  ii 

THE  STORY  OF  EVE,    •  ig 

THE  ABRAHAM-HAGAR  AFFAIR,  -  29 

ISAAC'S  WIFE,    -  47 

A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT,    -  67 

ANOTHER  OF  THE  WOMEN  OF  OLD,  83 

ALL  NAUGHTY,  BUT  FAIR,  97 

STORY  OF  SOME  WOMEN  AND  A  BABY,  -             107 
ANOTHER  OF  "THE  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES,"      -        123 

SOME  MANAGING  WOMEN,      -  135 

ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM,  151 

THE  FAMOUS  WIDOW  OF  MOAB,  163 

HE  GAVE  IT  UP  Too,  175 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


I  hummed  a  gay  little  tune  for  his  benefit,  Frontispiece. 

He  held  my  milk-white  hand  in  his,  13 

Our  first  parents,  -  17 
While  Adam  was  idly,  lazily  sunning  himself  in 

the  garden,  -  25 

The  Serpent  did  tempt  me,  -  28 

And  the  men  watched  to  see  her  go  by,  -  33 

And  the  woman  was  taken  into  Pharaoh's  house,  37 

Abraham  entertaining  the  three  angels,  -  41 
And  he  sent  Hagar  and  Ishmael  out  into  the 

wilderness,  -  43 

And  Abraham  went  down  to  Egypt,  -  44 
Let  me,  I  pray  thee,  drink  a  little  water  of  thy 

pitcher,  -  55 

I  will  go,  -  58 

Two  little  boys  played  marbles,  59 

Esau  cheated  out  of  his  blessing,  -  62 

And  Rebekah  was  —  a  woman,  64 

And  there  came  two  angels  to  Sodom,  -  69 

And  Lot  went  out  and  tried  to  pacify  them,  -  71 

Lot's  wife  looked  back,  -  75 

Look  not  behind  thee,  -  80 


Jacob  kissed  Rachel  and  lifted  up  his  voice  and 

wept,    -  87 

And  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel,      -  89 

She  hoped  he  would  excuse  her  for  not  arising,   -  94 
Put  up  his  hands  in  welcome  and  said  "Ah,  goo ! 

ah  goo !"                                                            -  1 1 5 

And  every  kiss  strengthened  her  determination,  119 
They  clasped  hands  Mngeringly  and  said  a  soft 

good  night,  129 

Alas,  my  lord,  I  beseech  thee,                                  -  132 

What  would'st  thou?       -  139 

She  let  them  down  from  the  window  of  her  house,  143 

She  smote  the  nail  into  his  temples,                        -  145 

Cast  a  piece  of  a  millstone  upon  Abimelech's  head,  147 

And  she  betrayed  him,                                               -  149 

Turned  her  pretty  head  aside  and  blushed,     -  170 

And  Boaz  and  Ruth  were  married,                         -  173 

And  I  said —        ..-,.,  180 


A  RIPPLE  OF  DISSENSION 

AND  WHAT  CAME  OF  IT. 


A  RIPPLE  OF  DISSENSION  AND  WHAT 
CAME  OF  IT. 

I  was  about  to  be  married.  My  numerous 
charms  and  attractions  had  won  the  affections 
of  a  young  man  who  was  equally  charming  with 
myself. 

We  were  sitting  on  a  luxurious  divan  and 
he  held  my  milk-white  hand  in  his.  I  do  not 
make  that  statement  as  a  startling  announce- 
ment of  an  unusual  occurrence,  but  simply  as  a 
matter  of  fact. 

We  had  been  conversing  about  the  culinary 
and  domestic  arrangements  of  our  future  home 
when  matrimony  had  made  us  "one  flesh;"  or, 
to  use  English,  we  had  been  wondering  what 


14  A   RIPPLE    OF    DISSENSION 

under  the  canopy  a  good  cooking  stove  would 
cost,  when  he  asked  suddenly  and  irrelevantly, 

"And  you  will  love  me,  always?" 

"Of  course,"  said  I,  a  little  impatiently;  for 
when  one  is  deep  in  a  mathematical  problem 
such  a  question  is  a  little  annoying. 

"And  you  will  honor  me  always?"  he  next 
inquired. 

"As  long  as  you  deserve  to  be  honored," 
I  replied,  with  the  habitual  good  sense  of  my 
age  and  sex,  mentally  wondering  if  granite- 
ware  stewpans  went  with  a  cooking  stove. 

"And  you  will  obey  me?"  he  queried  next, 
in  a  tone  that  plainly  indicated  that  I'd  have  to. 
I  left  the  mathematical  problem  for  future  solu- 
tion and  said,  hesitatingly: 

"Yes— if— I— can." 

"If  you  can?"  he  said,  in  sternly  questioning 
tones;  and  a  cloud  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand 
appeared  upon  the  heaven  of  our  love. 

"  I  don't  believe  a  woman  ever  lived  who 
ever  obeyed  any  one  —  God,  angels,  or  men,"  I 
cried. 

"You  are  a  traitor.  You  slander  your  sex," 
he  exclaimed,  aghast. 


AND   WHAT    CAME    OF    IT.  15 

"I  deny  the  charge,"  I  replied,  springing  to 
my  feet,  with  all  the  spirit  of  the  above-men- 
tioned age  and  sex.  "By  that  assertion  I  only 
add  glory  to  their  fame."  He  looked  at  me  for 
a  little  while,  too  surprised  to  speak,  and  then 
said,  in  sarcastic  tones: 

"Consider  our  wedding  postponed  until  you 
have  had  a  little  time  to  study  your  Bible. 
Good  night." 

"'Study  your  Bible!'  That  is  what  every- 
body says  when  they  want  to  prove  any  theory, 
creed,  ism,  or  anything.  I  shall  study  my  Bible 
diligently.  Good  night,"  I  replied,  thinking 
it  was  not  such  very  bad  advice  after  all;  and 
then  I  hummed  a  gay  little  tune  for  his  benefit 
until  I  heard  the  hall  door  close. 

And  I  have  studied  my  Bible  with  the  fol- 
lowing result. 


THE  STORY  OF  EVE. 


THE  STORY  OF  EVE. 

Away  back  when  Adam  was  a  young*man — 
now  I  know  that  Adam  is  rather  an  ancient 
subject,  but  you  need  not  elevate  your  eye- 
brows in  scorn,  for  you  will  be  ancient  yourself 
sometime — he  found  himself  in  Eden  one  day; 
he  did  not  know  why,  but  we  do,  don't  we  ? 

He  was  there  because  Eve  was  to  come,  and 
it  was  a  foregone  conclusion  even  in  that  early 
age  that  when  she  did  appear  she  would  want 
some  one  to  hold  her  bouquet,  open  the  door 
for  her,  button  her  gloves,  tell  her  she  was 
pretty  and  sweet  and  "I  never  saw  a  woman 
like  you  before,"  you  know. 

Her  arrival  was  the  greatest  event  the  world 
has  ever  known,  and  the  grandest  preparations 
were  made  for  it. 

A  blue  sky  arched  gloriously  over  the  earth, 
and  sun,  moon  and  stars  flashed  and  circled 
into  space,  silvery  rivers  ran  cool  and  slow 
through  scented  valleys,  the  trees  threw  cooling 
shadows  on  the  fresh,  damp  grass,  the  birds 


22  THE    STORY   OF    EVE. 

sang  in  the  rosy  dawn,  the  flowers  blushed  in 
odorous  silence  and  yet  it  was  all  incomplete, 
and  Adam  wandered  restlessly  around  like  a 
man  who  has  lost  his  collar  button. 

But  suddenly  a  great  hush  of  expectancy 
fell  upon  the  world.  Not  a  bird  fluttered  its 
feathers,  the  flowers  bowed  their  heads,  the 
winds  and  the  waters  listening  ceased  their 
flowing  and  their  blowing,  the  radiant  moon- 
shine mingled  its  light  with  the  pale  pink  dawn 
and  a  million  stars  paled  their  eternal  fires,  as 
Eve,  the  first  woman,  stood  in  Eden. 

And  the  world  was  young  and  beautiful. 
The  first  flush  and  bloom  was  on  the  mountains 
and  the  valleys,  the  birds  were  thrilled  by  the 
sweetness  of  their  own  songs,  the  waves  broke 
into  little  murmurs  of  delight  at  their  own 
liquid  beauty,  the  stars  of  heaven  and  the 
unfading  blue  were  above  Adam's  head — and 
yet  he  wasn't  satisfied.  Long  he  stood  idly  in 
the  brightening  dawn  wondering  why  the  days 
were  so  long  and  why  there  were  so  many  of 
them,  when  suddenly  out  from  the  swinging 
vines  and  the  swaying  foliage  Eve  came  forth. 

And  though  there  was  a  vacant  look  on  her 
lovely  face  (for  her  baby  soul  had  not  yet 


THE    STORY   OF    EVE.  23 

awakened)  Adam  saw  that  her  lips  were  red 
and  her  arm  white  and  rounded  and  he  whistled 
a  soft,  low  whistle  with  a  sort  of  "  O-won't-you- 
stop-a-moment?"  cadence  in  the  music,  and 
Eve  looked  up;  and  I  think  at  that  moment  he 
plucked  a  flower  and  offered  it  to  her;  and  of 
course  she  did  not  understand  it  all,  but  Nature, 
not  intelligence,  asserted  her  power,  and  she 
reached  out  her  hand  and  took  the  rose — and 
then  for  the  first  time  in  the  world  a  woman 
blushed  and  smiled;  and  I  suspect  it  was  at  that 
very  moment  that  "  the  morning  stars  first  sang 
together." 

Woman  has  never  been  obedient.  She  has 
always  had  the  germ  of  the  ruler  and  autocrat 
in  her  soul.  It  was  born  when  Eve  first  looked 
with  longing  eyes  at  the  apple  swinging  in  the 
sunlight. 

While  Adam  was  idly,  lazily  sunning  himself 
in  the  garden  was  Eve  contented  to  smell  the 
fragrance  of  the  violets  and  bask  in  the  star- 
light of  a  new  world  ?  Oh  no !  She  was 
quietly  wandering  around  searching  for  the 
Serpent,  and  when  she  found  him  she  smiled 
upon  him  and  he  thought  the  world  grew 
brighter;  then  she  laughed  and  his  subjugation 


24  THE    STORY   OF    EVE. 

was  complete  ;  and  then  the  naughty  creature, 
without  waiting  for  an  introduction,  led  him  to 
the  famous  apple  tree,  and  standing  on  her  tip- 
toes, reached  up  her  hands  and  said  with  a  soul- 
subduing  little  pout : 

"  See,  I  want  that  apple,  but  I  can't  reach  it. 
Won't  you  please  find  a  club  and  knock  it  off 
for  me?"  and  she  looked  out  of  the  corner  of 
her  eye  and  blushed  divinely. 

Now  this  Serpent  represented,  so  it  has  al- 
ways been  believed,  a  very  shrewd  person.  He 
saw  that  this  woman  had  no  garments,  and  that 
after  she  had  eaten  this  fruit  she  would  know 
better,  and  delight  in  clothes  ever  after.  So  he 
gave  her  the  apple. 

Almost  instantly  after  she  had  eaten  some, 
not  because  she  particularly  liked  apples,  or 
had  any  idea  of  their  adaptability  in  the  way  of 
pies,  sauce  or  cider,  but  because  she  wanted  to 
"  be  as  gods  knowing  good  and  evil,"  as  the 
Serpent  said  she  would.  Discontent  with  her 
wardrobe  crept  into  her  heart  and  ambition  for 
something  better  sprang  to  life. 

In  the  distance  stood  Adam.  With  a  thrill 
of  rapture  she  beheld  him,  her  aroused  soul 
flashed  from  her  eyes  and  love  was  born,  and 


THE    STORY    OF    EVE.  2? 

she  ran  toward  him  through  the  flowers,  paus- 
ing on  the  river's  brink  to  rest,  for  weariness 
had  touched  her  limbs. 

She  watched  the  waters  running  south  out 
of  the  garden,  and  like  one  coming  out  of  a 
dim,  sweet  twilight  into  a  blaze  of  glory  she 
looked  and  wondered  "why"  it  ran  that  way, 
and  lo!  Thought  blossomed  like  a  rose,  and 
generosity  laughed  in  the  sunshine  when  she 
put  the  apple  in  Adam's  hand;  and  Adam,  with 
the  only  woman  in  the  world  beside  him,  and 
the  first  free  lunch  before  him,  forgot  all  about 
God  and  His  commands  and  "did  eat,"  and  the 
results  prove  that  free  lunches  always  did  de- 
moralize men — and  always  will.  And  modesty 
blushed  rosy  red  when  Adam  put  the  apple  to 
his  lips,  and  invention  and  ingenuity,  new- 
born, rushed  to  the  rescue,  and  they  gathered 
the  fig  leaves. 

Then  memory  like  a  demon  whispered  in 
her  ear:  "  The  day  that  ye  eat  thereof  ye  shall 
surely  die."  She  glanced  at  Adam  and  deadly 
fear  chilled  the  joyous  blood  in  her  veins. 
Then  she  argued:  "  He  will  be  less  angry  with 
me,  a  woman,  and  His  vengeance  will  fall  less 
heavily  on  me  than  on  the  man  to  whom  His 


28  THE    STORY    OF    EVE. 

command  was  given;  and  lo!  Reason  rose  like 
a  star  on  the  waves  of  life,  and  shoulder  to 
shoulder  womanly  devotion  and  heroism  that 
fears  neither  God  nor  death  in  defense  of  its 
loved  ones  entered  her  soul,  and  she  instructed 
Adam  to  say:  "The  woman  tempted  me,"  and 
deception  trembled  on  her  lips  \\hen  she  cried: 
"  The  serpent  did  tempt  me,"  and  the  tears  of 
regret  and  remorse  watered  the  seeds  of  decep- 
tion and  they  grew  so  luxuriously  that  women 
have  always  had  that  same  way  of  getting  out 
of  scrapes  ever  since. 

Yet  to  Eve  belongs  the  honor  of  never 
having  obeyed  any  one — when  it  interfered 
with  progress,  advancement  and  intelligence — 
neither  God,  angels  nor  men. 

The  women  of  the  nineteenth  century  make 
a  profound  salaam  of  admiration  and  respect 
to  Eve,  in  whom  they  recognize  the  first  cour- 
ageous, undaunted  pioneer  woman  of  the  world. 


THE  ABRAHAM -HAGAR  AFFAIR. 


THE  ABRAHAM-HAGAR  AFFAIR. 

"And  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land;  and 
Abraham  went  down  to  Egypt  to  sojourn 
there." 

You  see  Abraham  was  that  charming  kind 
of  man — a  man  with  his  pockets  full  of  shekels, 
for  "he  was  very  rich  in  cattle,  in  silver  and  in 
gold."  So,  as  provisions  grew  short  in  Canaan, 
and  as  in  those  days  when  men  went  on  a 
pleasure  trip  they  took  their  wives  with  them, 
Sarah  accompanied  him  to  Egypt. 

Up  to  this  time  husbands  had  only  been 
obedient,  but  in  this  age  they  began  to  be  com- 
plimentary, and  as  Sarah  and  Abraham  were 
about  entering  Egypt,  he  said  to  her,  "  Behold 
now,  I  know  that  thou  art  a  fair  woman  to  look 
upon,"  and  even  if  it  is  the  first  compliment  on 
record,  we  must  admit,  even  at  this  late  day, 
that  Abraham  was  far  advanced  in  the  art  of 
flattery. 


32  THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR. 

Now  Sarah  was  the  pioneer,  champion, 
incomparable  coquette  of  the  ancient  world, 
and  as  such  deserves  our  earnest  attention. 

We  gather  from  the  following  events  that 
Abraham  realized  her  unequaled  proclivities 
for  getting  in  with  kings,  landlords  and  other 
magnates  of  the  countries  through  which  she 
was  pleasuring,  and  so  he  told  her  to  pass  her- 
self off  as  his  sister;  and  because  she  believed 
it  would  enhance  her  chances  of  having  a  good 
time,  and  as  it  was  easy,  natural  and  agreeable, 
she  did  it,  and  not  because  she  had  any  idea  of 
merely  obeying  her  husband. 

Abraham  wanted  their  marriage  kept  secret 
because,  in  those  days,  when  a  lover-king 
wished  to  get  rid  of  an  obnoxious  husband,  he 
hypnotized  him  into  eternal  silence  by  having 
him  used  as  a  target  for  a  sling,  a  spear  or 
javelin,  instead  of  causing  an  appeal  to  the 
divorce  courts,  as  they  do  in  this  civilized  and 
enlightened  generation.  And  I  believe  that, 
after  all,  the  old  way  is  the  better  one,  for 
when  men  and  women  die,  they  are  dead,  but 
when  they  are  only  divorced  they  are  awfully 
alive  sometimes. 


AND  THE  MEN  WATCHED  TO  SEE  HER  GO  BY." 


THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR.  35 

And  it  came  to  pass,  when  they  arrived  in 
Egypt,  the  Egyptians  "beheld  the  woman  that 
she  was  very  fair,"  and  the  men  watched  on  the 
street  corners  to  see  her  go  by;  and  she  passed 
herself  as  a  giddy  maiden  with  such  unrivaled 
success  that  she  gained  a  notoriety  that  would 
have  made  the  fortune  of  a  modern  actress,  and 
the  princes  of  Pharaoh  commended  her  wit, 
beauty  and  grace  to  the  king,  "and  the  woman 
was  taken  into  Pharaoh's  house." 

The  attentive  reader  will  observe  that  Holy 
Writ,  in  speaking  of  a  woman,  never  deigns  to 
say  that  she  is  virtuous,  industrious,  obedient, 
or  a  good  cook,  but  seems  to  ignore  everything 
but  the  fact  that  "she  was  fair  to  look  upon." 

That  was  all  that  seemed  to  be  required  of 
the  "holy  women  of  old." 

And  Pharaoh  "entreated  Abraham  well  for 
Sarah's  sake"  (you  notice  they  did  everything 
to  please  the  ladies  in  those  days),  and  loaded 
him  with  riches,  presents  and  honors;  and 
Pharaoh's  wives  and  sub-wives  and  cadet  wives 
didn't  like  it.  And  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas- 
ury, the  Prime  Minister  and  the  High  Lord 
Chamberlain  of  the  Bedchamber  didn't  like  it. 
The  neighbors  began  to  talk  openly;  the  scandal 


36  THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR. 

"smelled  to  heaven;"  and  the  Lord  Himself 
had  to  interfere  to  head  the  fair  Sarah  off,  and 
He  "plagued  Pharaoh  and  his  house  with  great 
plagues,  because  of  Sarah,  Abraham's  wife." 

And  then — after  the  preliminary  amorous 
clasping  of  hands,  the  little  caressing  atten- 
tions, the  lingering  kisses;  after  the  fiery 
expectation  and  the  rapture  of  possession,  after 
all  this  came — as  it  always  does — the  tragedy 
of  satiety  and  separation. 

"And  Abraham  went  up  out  of  Egypt,  he, 
and  his  wife  and  all  that  he  had." 

Yet  Peter,  in  speaking  of  the  duties  of  wives, 
has  the  temerity  to  refer  to  the  "  holy  women 
of  old,"  and  holds  Sarah  up  as  a  bright  and 
shining  example  for  us  to  follow,  saying,  "even 
as  Sarah  obeyed  Abraham,  calling  him  lord." 
But  we  won't  lay  this  up  against  Peter,  for  it  is  a 
telling  fact  (and  shows  the  predicament  he  was 
in)  that  he  had  to  go  back  nearly  two  thousand 
years  to  find  an  obedient  woman.  There  were 
evidently  none  in  his  day,  but  as  he  wished  to 
make  his  teaching  effective  and  submit  some 
proof  to  clinch  his  argument,  he  went  back  to 
Sarah  and  said,  "even  as  Sarah  obeyed  Abra- 


THE    ABRAHAM-HAGAR   AFFAIR.  39 

ham,"  which  shows  he  had  never  gotten  at  the 
real  facts  in  the  lovely  Sarah's  career,  or  else 
was  misrepresenting  Sarah  to  carry  his  point  in 
favor  of  the  men. 

A  careful  perusal  of  my  Bible  convinces  me 
that  the  "holy  women  of  old,"  as  Peter  dubs 
them,  were  all  afflicted  with  a  chronic  determi- 
nation to  have  their  own  way — and  they  had  it. 

But  the  men  were  always  obedient  to  the 
women,  and  each  one  "hearkened  unto  the 
voice  of  his  wife"  and  also  obeyed  God  and  the 
angels. 

At  this  point  in  the  history  of  the  affable 
Sarah  and  the  dutiful  Abraham  we  come  to  the 
Abraham-Hagar  case,  and  find  the  hired-girl 
question  already  agitating  society. 

And  the  historian  tells  us  that  Sarah  told 
Abraham  that  he  could  have  Hagar  for  his  very 
own,  and  then  the  narrator  naively  remarks, 
"And  Abraham  hearkened  unto  the  voice  of 
his  wife." 

But  of  course  this  is  a  vile  slander  against 
Sarah,  and,  at  this  late  day,  I  rise  to  refute  the 
charge. 


4<3  THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR   AFFAIR. 

Probably  some  of  Abraham's  political  friends, 
when  the  disgrace  broke  forth  in  all  its  rosy 
glory,  trumped  up  this  story  about  Sarah's  con- 
sent to  save  his  reputation.  But  Sarah  never 
did  anything  of  the  kind,  as  her  subsequent 
actions  prove.  It  isn't  human  nature;  it  isn't 
wifely  nature;  and  although  Sarah  was  a  little 
gay-hearted  herself,  she  wasn't  going  to  stand 
any  such  nonsense  —  to  speak  lightly  —  from 
Abraham,  and  when  she  discovered  his  intimacy 
with  the  hired  girl  she  quietly  called  him  into 
the  tent,  and  in  less  than  ten  seconds  she  made 
his  life  a  howling  wilderness.  I  don't  know 
exactly  what  she  said  (as  I  wasn't  there),  but 
it  ended,  as  such  scenes  usually  do  end,  by 
the  dear  man  repenting.  For,  since  he  is  found 
out,  what  else  can  a  man  do  ?  He  said  he  was 
sorely  tempted,  no  doubt,  and  so  forth  and  so 
on  to  the  end  of  the  chapter,  and  said :  "Thy 
maid  is  in  thy  hands;  do  unto  her  as  it  pleaseth 
thee."  And  "Sarah  dealt  hardly  with  her,  and 
she  fled  from  her  face."  But  she  came  back, 
because  you  remember  she  met  an  angel  in  the 
wilderness,  and  he  told  her  to  return.  Nice 
advice  from  an  angel,  wasn't  it  ? 


The  next  scene 
in   which    the 
lovely     Sarah 
distinguishes 
herself,  and  nobly  sus- 
tains   her   record    for 
disobedience  and  a  deter- 
mination to  follow  the  dic- 
tates of  her  own  sweet  will,  was 
when    Abraham     entertained    the 
three  angels. 

Now  hobnobbing  with  angels  wasn't 
an   every-day   affair,   even  in  that  age 
when  angels  were   more  plentiful  than 
they  are  now. 

And  Abraham  was  naturally  a  little 
excited,  and  he  "hastened  into  the  tent  unto 
Sarah,"  and  said :  "  Make  ready  quickly  three 
measures  of  fine  meal,  knead  it,  and  make 
cakes  upon  the  hearth;"  and  he  gave  orders  to 
a  young  man  to  kill  a  calf,  etc.  And  after  a 
while  the  supper  was  served,  with  all  the  deli- 
cacies the  rich  and  great  could  afford,  and 
everything  appeared  that  he  had  ordered — 
except  Sarah's  cakes.  They  were  simply  and 
inexplicably  non  est. 


42  THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR. 

Of  course  it  was  a  pretty  shabby  thing  for  a 
woman  to  go  back  on  her  husband  in  his  hour 
of  need,  and  when  there  were  angels  in  the 
house  too ;  but  she  did  it,  thereby  sustaining 
her  reputation  for  crookedness  and  general 
contrariness  as  a  wife. 

And  yet  it  has  always  been  preached  to  us 
that  we  should  obey  our  husbands  "even  as 
Sarah  obeyed  Abraham."  Well,  we're  willing, 
since  all  she  had  to  do  was  to  look  pretty,  be 
agreeable,  and  do  exactly  as  she  pleased. 

But  the  very  fact  that  Sarah  has  been  held 
up  as  an  example  for  us  to  follow  proves  that 
the  men  had  not  read  up  her  record  intelli- 
gently, or  else  in  their  extremity  they  were 
presuming  on  our  ignorance  while  trying  to 
enforce  order  and  submission. 

But  that  was  not  the  worst  of  it.  When  she 
heard  the  angel  tell  Abraham  that  she  should 
have  a  son  she  ridiculed  the  idea. 

She  had  the  germ  of  the  infidel  in  her  heart, 
and  lacked  Abraham's  credulity,  and  would  not 
believe  anything,  even  if  an  angel  did  say  so, 
unless  it  was  backed  up  by  reason  and  common 
sense,  and  so  she  laughed  behind  their  backs. 


THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR.  43 

Now  it  appears  that  angels  object  to  being 
ridiculed  as  well  as  other  folk,  and  when  they 
heard  her  giggling  they  demanded   to   know 
the  reason  of  Abraham.     It  was  exceedingly 
naughty  for  her  to  place  her  husband  in  such  a 
predicament,  and  when  she 
found  she  was  getting  the 
whole  family  into  an  up- 
roar she  denied  the 
charge,  which  shows 


that  to  her  other  charming  and  wifely  qualities 
she  added  the  art  of  equivocating. 

After  that  Abraham  "sojourned  in  Gerar," 
and  again  the  seductive  Sarah  charmed  the 
great  king,  and  again  the  Lord  had  to  interfere 
and  settle  the  affair. 


44 


THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR. 


When  Isaac  was  born  Sarah  was  more  ex- 
acting and  jealous  than  ever  of  Hagar,  and  said 
to  Abraham :  "Cast  out  this  bond-woman  and 
her  son ;  for  the  son  of  this  bond-woman  shall 
not  be  heir  with  my  son." 


-•• 


"And  the  thing  was  very  grievous  in  Abra- 
ham's sight,"  but  he  "hearkened  unto  the  voice 
of  his  wife,"  like  the  dutiful  and  obedient  hus- 
band he  was,  and  he  sent  Hagar  and  Ishmael 
out  into  the  wilderness.  And  even  to  this  day 
the  women  who  are  guilty  of  Hagar's  crime  are 


THE   ABRAHAM-HAGAR    AFFAIR.  45 

remorselessly  sent  out  into  the  wilderness  of 
desertion,  despair  and  disgrace — and  it  is  right 
and  just ! 

We  are  told  that  "fashions  change;"  but 
Sarah  inaugurated  a  fashion  that  wives  have 
followed  to  this  day,  and  will  follow  till  the 
ocean  of  eternity  shall  sweep  the  island  of 
Time  into  oblivion. 

And  so  endeth  the  chapter  of  the  second 
prominent  woman  of  "Holy  Writ." 

And  Abraham  was  always  "obedient,"  and 
"hearkened  unto  the  voice  of  his  wife ;"  and 
Sarah  was  a  lawless,  crafty,  coquettish — but 
never  obedient  woman. 


ISAAC'S  WIFE. 


ISAAC'S  WIFE. 

And  Abraham  said  unto  his  servant,  "Thou 
shalt  go  unto  my  country  and  to  my  kindred, 
and  take  a  wife  unto  my  son  Isaac." 

But  the  servant,  who  was  evidently  a  student 
of  female  character  and  knew 

"  That  when  a  woman  will,  she  will, 

You  may  depend  on  it; 
And  when  she  won't,  she  won't, 

And  there's  an  end  on  it;" 

said:  "  Peradventure,  the   woman  will   not  be 
willing  to  follow  me  unto  this  land." 

Then  Abraham,  who  was  a  connoisseur  in 
feminine  ethics  (as  he  naturally  would  be, 
having  had  such  able  instructors  as  Sarah  and 
Hagar )  and  realized  the  utter  futility  of 
attempting  to  persuade,  bribe  or  induce  a 
woman  to  do  anything  she  objected  to  doing, 
said : 

"And  if  the  woman  will  not  be  willing  to 
follow  thee,  then  thou  shalt  be  clear  from  this 
mine  oath." 


50  ISAAC  S   WIFE. 

So  the  servant  departed  and  "went  to  Meso- 
potamia unto  the  city  of  Nahor." 

Now  it  seems  in  those  days  the  girls  of 
Nahor  went  outside  the  city  gates  every  even- 
ing, according  to  Oriental  custom,  to  draw 
water  from  a  well,  and  the  artful  servant  of 
Abraham  tarried  at  the  well  at  sunset,  for  he 
knew  the  girls  would  be  along  presently. 

It  was  a  lovely  eventide.  The  wind  touched 
caressingly  the  few  dainty  flowers  drooping 
their  heads  in  sleepy  fragrance,  the  birds  twit- 
tered soft  words  of  love  to  their  nestling  mates, 
the  departing  god  of  day  lavished  in  reckless 
abandon  his  wealth  of  colors;  piled  crimson 
mountains  red  as  his  ardent  love  in  the  western 
sky,  and  robed  high  heaven  in  golden  glory 
that  his  sweetheart — the  earth — reveling  in  and 
remembering  the  grandeur  of  his  passion  and 
the  splendor  of  his  departure,  might  not  love 
his  silver-armored  rival  of  the  night. 

About  this  time  the  maidens  tripped  down 
to  the  well,  where  the  shrewd  servant  stood  as 
the  "daughters  of  the  men  of  the  city  came  out 
to  draw  water,"  and  prayed: 

"And  let  it  come  to  pass  that  the  damsel  to 
whom  I  shall  say,  '  Let  down  thy  pitcher,  I  pray 


ISAACS   WIFE.  51 

thee,  that  I  may  drink;'  and  she  shall  say, 
'Drink,'  may  be  the  one  I  am  looking  for;"  or 
words  to  that  effect. 

The  words  had  hardly  passed  his  lips  ere 
Rebekah,  with  the  color  snatched  from  the 
roses  in  her  cheeks  and  the  grace  of  untram- 
meled  freedom  in  her  step,  skipped  down  to 
the  well. 

And  Rebekah  "was  very  fair  to  look  upon." 
Of  course.  In  relating  the  history  of  these 
examples  who  have  been  held  up  since  time 
immemorial  for  us  to  follow,  the  writers  of 
"Holy  Writ"  never  expatiate  upon  their  virtue, 
industry,  domesticity,  constancy  or  love,  but 
we  are  simply  and  briefly  told  they  were  "  fair 
to  look  upon,"  and  the  natural  logical  inference 
is  that  we  shall  "go  and  do  likewise." 

Belonging  to  one  of  the  wealthiest  and 
most  influential  families  of  Nahor,  of  course 
Rebekah's  practiced  eye  saw  at  a  glance  that 
the  handsome  fellow  waiting  at  the  well  and 
looking  the  girls  over  was  a  person  of  rank  and 
importance;  for  it  is  only  a  logical  conclusion 
that  coming  from  such  a  master  and  bound 
upon  such  an  errand,  he  was  surrounded  by  all 


52  ISAAC'S  WIFE. 

the  trappings  and  signs  of  wealth  and  luxury 
that  the  times  afforded. 

And  the  maidens  of  Nahor  went  outside  the 
city  gates  partly  for  the  same  purpose,  I  sup- 
pose, as  that  for  which  the  girls  of  other  places 
go  to  the  parks  and  matinees  nowadays,  for  it 
seems  to  have  been  a  notorious  fact  that  had 
even  spread  to  other  countries,  that  the  girls  of 
Nahor  came  down  to  the  well  in  the  blushing 
sunset,  and  that  too,  without  chaperon  or 
duenna.  And  I  suppose  the  young  men  went 
down  too,  to  flirt  with  the  charming  damsels, 
from  the  fact  that  the  servant  of  Abraham 
tarried  there. 

And  Rebekah,  stooping  gracefully,  filled  her 
pitcher,  swung  it  lightly  to  her  shoulder  —  and 
as  the  woman  sometimes  takes  the  initiative  in 
an  affair  of  this  kind — smiled  upon  the  willing 
and  ready-looking  fellow;  not  exactly  at  him, 
but  as  it  were  in  his  direction,  you  know;  and 
he  caught  the  faint  glint  of  sunshine  on  her  lips, 
and  then — but  in  the  witching  hour  when  the 
twilight  and  sunlight  kiss  and  part,  after  the 
smile  and  look  of  recognition  everyone  knows 
what  happens. 


ISAAC'S  WIFE.  53 

And  he  ran  to  her  and  said  with  the  pleas- 
ing courtesy  of  a  man  of  the  world: 

"  Let  me,  I  pray  thee,  drink  a  little  water  of 
thy  pitcher." 

Then  with  the  tact  of  a  finished  coquette,  in 
three  little  words  she  conveyed  to  him  the  flat- 
tering knowledge  that  she  recognized  in  him 
an  embassador  of  power,  wealth  and  luxury, 
by  saying: 

"  Drink,  my  Lord." 

After  that  they  became  acquainted  in  the 
most  easy,  off-hand  manner,  without  an  intro- 
duction, and  yet  we  are  told  to  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  these  pioneers  of  the  race  who  were 
always  "  fair  to  look  upon." 

I  never  in  my  life  heard  priest  or  people 
condemning  her  for  forming  the  acquaintance  of 
a  stranger  without  an  introduction;  she  was 
called  one  of  the  "mothers  in  Israel,"  and  even 
St.  Paul,  who  was  a  regular  crank  about  the 
girls,  classed  her  with  the  "  holy  women  of 
old,"  which  proves  he  didn't  know  anything 
about  her  history  or  was  playing  upon  the 
ignorance  of  his  hearers.  She  was  a  leader  of 
the  ton  in  Israel,  and  if  in  those  days  they  did 
not  banish  her  from  good  society,  why  should 


54  ISAACS   WIFE. 

we  censure  the  same  conduct  when  we  are  so 
much  more  civilized,  enlightened  and  liberal  in 
our  views? 

And  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time 
he  adorned  her  with  earrings  and  bracelets, 
and  she  invited  him  home  with  her,  and  he 
actually  went  and  made  it  all  right  with  her 
mother  and  big  brother  by  making  a  preposses- 
sing exhibition  of  piety,  for  you  remember  how 
he  told  them  "he  bowed  down  his  head  and 
worshipped  the  Lord." 

He  told  them  of  Isaac,  in  whose  name  he 
sued  for  Rebekah's  fair  hand.  He  didn't  say 
that  Isaac  was  handsome,  virtuous,  talented  or 
ambitious,  but  he  said,  "the  Lord  hath  blessed 
my  master  and  he  is  very  great;  and  he  hath 
given  him  flocks  and  herds,  and  silver  and 
gold,  and  maid  servants  and  men  servants,  and 
camels  and  asses,"  and  unto  his  son  Isaac 
"  hath  he  given  all  that  he  hath,"  for  this  astute 
man  of  the  world  seemed  to  know  that  the 
surest  and  quickest  way  to  win  a  woman  was 
to  show  her  a  golden  pathway  strewn  with  the 
gems  of  power,  luxury  and  ambition. 

And  the  big  brother  did  not  pull  out  his 
watch,  look  at  it  in  a  business-like  way  and  say: 


•LET   ME,    I    PRAY  THEE,    DRINK   A   LITTLE   WATER 
OF  THY    PITCHER." 


ISAAC  S   WIFE.  57 

"  Rebekah,  pack  your  trunk  and  be  ready 
to  take  the  6:40  fast  express."  And  her  mother 
did  not  smile  and  say,  "we're  so  delighted  and 
honored,  I'm  sure.  Of  course  she  will  go." 
Not  at  all.  They  knew  better  even  in  those 
days  than  to  try  and  coerce  or  coax  a  woman 
to  do  anything  she  didn't  want  to  do,  and  so 
they  simply  said: 

"  We  will  call  the  damsel  and  inquire  at  her 
mouth." 

Then  the  servant  brought  forth  jewels  of 
silver  and  jewels  of  gold,  and  raiment,  and 
gave  them  to  Rebekah;  and  he  gave  also  to  her 
brother  and  to  her  mother  precious  things,  and 
then  we  are  naively  told  that  Rebekah  said: 

"I  will  go." 

Rebekah  was  a  woman  of  decision  and  knew 
a  good  thing  when  she  saw  it,  and  so  she  did 
not  wait  to  prepare  a  stunning  trousseau  or  get 
out  wedding  cards  and  invitations  fine  enough 
to  make  all  the  girls  of  Nahor  sigh  in  envy 
and  admiration,  but  she  departed  at  once.  Now 
Isaac  was  of  a  poetical  nature,  and  sought 
the  solitude  of  the  fields  at  eventide  to  medi- 
tate. Like  most  young  men  who  have  a  love 


ISAAC  S   WIFE. 


affair  on  hand  he  wanted  to  be  alone  and  dream 
dreams  and  see  visions. 

And,  as  good  luck  would  have  it,  just  at  this 
sentimental  and  opportune  moment,  Rebekah 
hove  in  sight. 

And  Isaac  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  beheld 
her;  a  woman  with  heaven  in  her  eyes,  a  mouth 
sweet  enough  to  make  a  man  forget  everything 
but  the  roses  of  life,  and  a  form  seductive 
enough  to  tempt  the  very  gods  from  on  high. 
And  she  beheld  a  man,  young 
and  strong  and  handsome, 
the  touch  of  whose  hand 
opened  the  gates  of  glory 
to  her  soul,  "  and  she 


ISAAC  S   WIFE. 


59 


became  his  wife,  and  he  loved  her,"  thereby 
putting  himself  on  record  as  the  first  man  in 
the  world  we  have  any  sacred  official  notifi- 
cation of  as  having  loved  his  wife. 

So   the   days   and    months,    brightened   by 
smiles  and  tarnished  by  tears,  dropped  into  the 
wreck-strewn,  motionless 
ocean  of  the  past,  and 
in  the  course  of  human 
events  two  little  boys 


played  marbles  in  the  tent  of  Isaac,  and  Rebekah 
scored  the  rather  doubtful  distinction  of  going 
on  record  as  the  first  woman  who  ever  doubled 
expectations  and  presented  her  husband  with 
twins. 


60  ISAAC'S  WIFE. 

At  this  period  the  fair  Rebekah  begins  to 
get  in  her  work  as  a  disobedient  wife,  a  deceit- 
ful, intriguing  woman  and  an-all-round-have- 
her-own-way  variety  of  her  sex. 

"  Isaac  loved  Esau,  but  Rebekah  loved 
Jacob,"  and  we  conclude  from  that,  as  well  as 
from  the  actual  facts  in  the  case,  that  there 
were  domestic  tornadoes,  conjugal  cyclones  and 
general  unpleasantness  all  round.  About  this 
time  there  was  another  famine  in  the  land  and 
Isaac  and  Rebekah  (and  others)  went  into  the 
land  of  the  Philistines  to  dwell,  and  of  course 
Rebekah's  beauty  attracted  universal  attention, 
and  the  men  of  the  place  questioned  Isaac 
about  her  and  he  replied  that  she  was  his  sister, 
as  he  said,  "  lest  the  men  of  the  place  should 
kill  me  for  Rebekah,"  because  she  was  fair  to 
look  upon. 

In  that  age  it  appears  when  a  man  fell  in 
love  with  a  woman  he  killed  her  husband, 
instead  of  hoodwinking  and  outwitting  him  as 
they  do  in  this  progressive  era,  but  I  suppose 
in  spite  of  the  awful  chance  of  losing  her 
husband  by  some  sudden  and  tragic  death, 
Rebekah  slyly  and  seductively  smiled  upon 
"the  men  of  the  place"  from  the  fact  that  a 


ISAAC'S  WIFE.  61 

little  farther  on  we  read  that  the  King  issued  a 
mandate,  saying: 

"  He  that  toucheth  this  man  or  his  wife  shall 
surely  be  put  to  death." 

The  King  knew  that  Isaac  was  favored  of 
the  Lord,  and  he  was  afraid  of  some  swift  and 
condign  punishment  if  Isaac  became  offended 
by  the  amorous  attentions  of  any  of  his  subjects 
to  Rebekah,  so  he  gave  the  order  to  the  men. 

You  will  readily  discern  by  that  command 
that  he  was  a  keen  and  intelligent  student  of 
female  character,  and  knew  there  was  no  use  or 
reason  in  appealing  to  her  sense  of  justice,  her 
obedience  to,  or  respect  for  law,  or  her  regard 
for  the  "  eternal  fitness  of  things  "  in  a  case  of 
the  affections,  and  so  he  appealed  to  the  fear  and 
obedience  of  the  men,  for  he  realized  that  no 
man's  pleading,  no  King's  command,  no  threats 
from  heaven  or  fears  of  hell  can  stop  a  woman's 
coquetry. 

A  little  farther  on  Esau  went  the  way  of  all 
young  men  and  married,  and  worse  than  that 
he  married  Judith  the  daughter  of  a  Hittite, 
"  which  was  a  grief  of  mind  unto  Rebekah  and 
Isaac." 


62 


ISAAC  S  WIFE. 


We  know  that  one  of  Rebekah's  strongest 
points  was  putting  herself  on  record  for  doing 
something    that    no    woman   ever    did   before 
that  we  have  any  author- 
ized  statement  of,   and 
she  did  it  in  this  case  by 
being   the    first  woman 
who  hated  her  daughter- 
in-law. 


„  JP  s   - 

As  we  read  on  we  find  she  was  not  the 
meek,  submissive  and  obedient  wife  we  are 
told  women  should  be. 

She  systematically  and  continually  had  her 
own  way,  in  spite  of  husband,  sons,  kings,  men, 
God  or  angels. 

We  discover  that  by  a  succession  of  decep- 
tions, tricks  and  chicanery  she  cheated  Esau 


ISAAC'S  WIFE.  65 

out  of  his  blessing,  obtained  it  for  Jacob,  and 
deceived  and  deluded  her  dying  husband,  all  at 
one  fell  swoop. 

It  is  but  just  to  Jacob  to  say  that  he  objected 
to  putting  himself  in  his  brother's  place,  but 
Rebekah  said,  "  only  obey  my  voice,"  and  he 
obeyed — of  course. 

The  men  were  always  obedient,  as  the  Bible 
proves  conclusively.  They  obeyed  everybody 
and  anybody — kings,  mothers,  wives,  sweet- 
hearts and  courtesans. 

But  where  can  we  find  any  evidence  of  the 
vaunted  obedience  of  woman? 

Not  among  the  prominent  women  of  the 
Bible  at  least. 

Rebekah  influenced  her  husband  in  all  mat- 
ters, advanced  one  son's  interests  and  balked 
another's  aims,  prospects  and  ambitions.  In 
short  she  played  her  cards  with  such  consum- 
mate skill  that  she  captured  everything  she 
cared  to  take. 

Jacob  was  obedient,  complimentary,  sub- 
missive and  loving  and  Rebekah  was — a  woman. 


A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT. 


A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT. 


"And   there   came  two 
angels  to  Sodom,  at  even." 
Now  Lot  and  his  wife 
were  residents  of  Sodom, 
and  they  entertained  in  the 
f    most   courteous    and    hos- 
pitable manner  the  angels 
who     were     the     advance 
|  guards   of    the   destruction 
that  was  about  to  sweep  the 
cities  of  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah into  oblivion,  leaving  only 
a  blazing  ash-strewn  tradition  to 
scare  the  slumbers  of   the  wicked, 
and  stalk  a  warning  specter  down  the  paths  of 
iniquity  through  unborn  ages. 

And   the   softening   twilight   fell  upon  the 
doomed    but    unconscious    cities.      Unpitying 


7<D  A   WOMAN  S    MONUMENT. 

Nature  smiled  joyously.  The  cruel  sun,  possi- 
bly knowing  the  secret  of  the  angels,  gayly 
flaunted  his  myriad  colors,  and  disappeared  in 
a  blaze  of  glory  without  wasting  one  regret 
upon  the  wicked  cities  he  would  see  no  more 
forever. 

No  angelic  hand  wrote  in  blazing  letters 
one  word  of  warning  across  the  star-gemmed 
scroll  of  heaven;  but  the  song  rung  out  on  the 
evening  breezes,  laughter  rose  and  fell  and  the 
red  wine  flowed;  women  danced  lightly  on  the 
brink  of  destruction  and  men  jested  on  the 
edge  of  the  grave. 

And  yet  some  rumor  of  these  angels  and 
their  errand  must  have  reached  the  fated  cities, 
for  after  Lot  had  dined  and  wined  them  before 
they  retired,  "the  men  of  the  city,  even  the 
men  of  Sodom,  compassed  the  house  round, 
both  old  and  young,  all  the  people  from  every 
quarter." 

And  Lot  went  out  and  tried  to  pacify  them, 
but  his  eloquence  and  his  pleading  were  in 
vain,  and  they  said,  "Stand  back."  And  they 
said  again,  "This  one  fellow  came  in  to  sojourn, 
and  he  will  needs  be  a  judge." 


A   WOMAN  S    MONUMENT.  73 

And  I  imagine  there  was  a  great  tumult  and 
confusion,  angry  words,  flashing  eyes  and  an 
ominous  surging  to  and  fro,  "and  they  pressed 
sore  upon  the  man,  even  Lot,"  but  still  he 
pleaded  the  defense  of  the  angels,  and  meanly 
offered  to  bring  out  his  two  young  daughters  and 
give  to  the  howling  mob — but  the  passion  that 
glowed  in  the  eyes  and  trembled  in  the  voices 
of  the  raging  throng  was  not  a  passion  to  be 
allayed  by  the  clasp  of  a  woman's  hand,  the 
flash  of  her  azure  eye,  or  the  touch  of  her  lips; 
and  besides,  that  boisterous,  angry  crowd  evi- 
dently did  not  believe  in  the  efficacy  of  vicari- 
ous atonement  and  they  flouted  the  offer.  The 
uproar  increased,  curses  and  maledictions  rung 
out,  the  demand  for  the  men  grew  louder  and 
louder,  and  at  this  perilous  moment  the  angels 
"put  forth  their  hand  and  pulled  Lot  into  the 
house  to  them,  and  shut  to  the  door,"  and 
"They  smote  the  men  that  were  at  the  door  of 
the  house  with  blindness,  both  small  and  great: 
so  that  they  wearied  themselves  to  find  the 
door." 

And  in  that  crushing  moment  when  eternal 
darkness  fell  upon  the  multitude  the  cries  of 
anger  and  revenge  died  away,  and  such  a  moan 


74  A   WOMAN  S    MONUMENT. 

of  anguish  and  despair  burst  upon  the  affrighted 
night  that  the  very  stars  in  heaven  trembled. 

Then  the  angels  confided  to  Lot  their  dread 
secret  and  told  him  to  warn  all  his  relatives  to 
leave  the  city  with  him,  and  he  went  out  and 
told  his  sons-in-law  of  the  impending  calamity, 
and  he  "seemed  as  one  that  mocked  unto  his 
sons-in-law." 

The  morning  came  blue-eyed  and  blushing, 
and  the  angels  hastened  Lot  and  his  wife,  and 
hurried  them  out  of  the  city,  saying,  "  Escape 
for  thy  life:  look  not  behind  thee,  neither  stay 
thou  in  all  the  plains:  escape  to  the  mountains, 
lest  thou  be  consumed." 

Now  if  there  were  any  more  disreputable 
people  in  the  cities  than  Lot's  two  young 
daughters,  we  don't  wonder  that  the  vengeance 
of  a  just  God  sent  a  blasting  storm  of  bursting 
flames  to  lick  with  their  fiery  tongues  these 
wicked  cities  from  the  face  of  the  earth. 
What  does  arouse  our  wonder  is  that  those  fair 
girls  with  the  devil's  instincts  smouldering  in 
their  hearts  should  be  allowed  to  escape  the 
general  baking.  But  excuse  us;  our  business  is 
to  state  facts  and  not  to  wonder  or  surmise. 


From  subsequent  facts  we  ^ 
suppose     that    Lot's    wife  ', 
sadly,    perhaps   rebelliously, 
lingered,    for    we    find    the 
angels  saying  again: 

"  Haste  thee,  escape  thither; 
for  I  cannot  do  anything  till  thou  come 
thither,"  and  they  escaped  to  the  city  of  Zoar, 
"  and  the  sun  was  risen  upon  the  face  of  the 
earth  when  Lot  entered  into  Zoar." 

"  Then  the  Lord  rained  upon  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  brimstone  and  fire  from  the  Lord 
out  of  heaven." 

But  before  the  end  Lot's  "  wife  looked  back 
from  behind  him  and  she  became  a  pillar  of 
salt." 

All  the  information  we  have  of  Mrs.  Lot  is 
exceedingly  meager;  only  one  short  sentence 
and  two  little  clauses  in  other  sentences;  and 
yet  no  figure  of  history,  no  creation  of  a  poet's 
dream  or  artist's  brush  since  the  world,  wrapped 
in  the  laces  of  the  twilight  and  the  mists,  and 
rocked  in  the  cradle  of  the  first  early  morning 
of  life,  until  the  present  day,  old  in  experience, 
wrinkled  with  care,  heart-sick  with  too  much 


76  A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT. 

knowledge  and  laughing  without  mirth,  stands 
out  more  clearly  before  the  world  than  Lot's 
wife — and  why? 

Because  it  has  been  supposed  that  she  was 
very  naughty. 

In  this  world  it  is  the  wicked  folks  who  get 
the  glory  and  the  everlasting  fame;  the  good 
people  get  the  snubs,  the  crumbs,  the  eternal 
oblivion. 

The  whole  history  of  Lot's  wife  lies  in  the 
fact  that  she  was  told  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord 
to  do  one  thing,  and  she — didn't  do  it. 

But  that  is  characteristic  of  the  women  of 
old;  they  systematically  didn't  do  it  if  they 
were  told  to,  and  systematically  did  do  it  if 
they  were  told  not  to. 

And  Madam  Lot  "became  a  pillar  of  salt," 
because  of  her  disobedience,  and  has  stood 
through  the  centuries  a  warning  statue  to 
naughty  females;  yes,  more  than  that,  for  she 
has  seemed  a  criminal  whom  just  vengeance 
caught  in  the  very  act  and  turned  into  a  pillar 
of  salt,  standing  in  the  plain  near  Sodom, 
against  a  background  of  shame,  crime  and  pun- 
ishment, that  the  eyes  of  the  world  of  women 
might  look  upon  forever,  and  be  afraid. 


A  WOMAN  S   MONUMENT.  77 

But  in  this  day  and  age  we  are  beginning  to 
see  that  in  Lot's  wife  it  was  a  case  of  mistaken 
identity,  and  instead  of  being  a  criminal  she 
was  a  great  and  good  woman,  and  although  the 
"pillar  of  salt"  commemorates  an  act  of  dire 
disobedience,  it  also  extols  a  loving  heart  and 
a  brave  act. 

Just  imagine  her  position.  She  was  leav- 
ing her  home,  around  which  a  woman's  heart 
clings  as  the  vine  clings  to  the  oak,  her  chil- 
dren, her  friends;  breaking  the  ties  that  years 
of  association  and  friendship  had  woven  about 
her  in  chains  of  gold,  and  leaving  them  to  a 
terrible  fate.  But  stronger  than  all  these  gos- 
samer, yet  almost  unbreakable  threads,  was  the 
love  she  bore  her  husband;  a  love  so  intense, 
so  deep  that  it  made  her  obey  a  command  of 
God's  against  which  every  instinct,  passion  and 
emotion  of  her  nature  rebelled. 

He  was  going  and  her  daughters  were  going 
with  him,  and  womanlike  she  forsook  every- 
thing to  follow  him — the  man  she  loved;  the 
man  whose  frown  could  make  her  heart  sore 
as  the  wounds  of  death  and  agony,  and  her 
heaven  dark  with  the  clouds  of  desolation  and 
despair;  or  whose  gentle  smile  or  caressing 


78  A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT. 

touch  could  sweep  the  mists  of  doubt  and  un- 
certainty from  her  mind,  even  as  June  kisses 
make  June  roses  blossom,  her  weary  eye  glow 
with  the  light  that  love  alone  can  kindle,  and 
clothe  rough  labor  in  robes  of  splendor. 

Softly  the  dawn  awoke,  gayly  fell  the  sun- 
light on  the  doomed  cities,  and  joyously  the 
breezes  swept  the  plains  round  about  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah. 

And  Lot  and  his  wife  and  daughters  obeyed 
the  command:  "  Escape  for  thy  life;  look  not 
behind  thee,  neither  stay  thou  in  all  the  plains; 
escape  to  the  mountains  lest  thou  be  con- 
sumed." 

And  now  with  frantic  haste  Lot's  wife  urges 
them  on;  she  even  leads  the  way  in  her  mad 
desire  for  their  escape,  encouraging  them  by 
word,  look  and  action.  And  while  her  heart  is 
a  battle-ground  where  a  desperate  conflict  is 
raging,  there  is  no  hint  of  disobedience  or 
rebellion  in  her  eyes,  no  lagging  in  her  foot- 
step, no  tears  for  love,  no  sighs  for  friendship, 
no  backward  glance  of  compassion  toward  the 
wicked  but  dear  city. 

And  now  they  have  come  a  long  way — and 
suddenly  the  sunshine  grows  dark,  the  wind 


A   WOMAN  S    MONUMENT.  7Q 

falls,  flutters,  dies  away;  then  comes  the  omi- 
nous hush  that  foretells  the  bursting  storm. 

And  this  woman  knows  that  her  daughters 
and  her  husband,  the  lover  of  her  youth  and 
the  lover  of  later  years,  in  short  the  one  loved 
lover  of  her  life,  is  safe;  safe  from  the  tempest 
of  destruction,  safe  from  the  wrath  of  God.  A 
wave  of  joy  floods  her  heart  at  the  thought. 
No  harm  can  touch  them;  she  revels  in  that 
assurance  for  a  moment — and  then  she  forgets 
them. 

The  white-capped  breakers  of  disobedience 
against  the  cruel  command  "look  not  behind 
thee"  sweep  with  crushing  force  across  her 
soul;  the  unjust  command  that  stifles  compas- 
sion. All  the  angels  and  demons,  the  joys  and 
sorrows  of  life,  urge  her  to  turn  back;  love  of 
children,  friendship  of  old  neighbors,  regret  for 
the  joys  that  have  fled,  remorse  for  the  wicked 
deeds  she  has  done,  the  unkind  words  she  has 
spoken,  a  blind  unreasoning  rebellion  against 
the  fate  that  has  overtaken  her  friends  and 
home,  fight  against  God's  command.  And  in 
that  awful  moment  when  the  furious  winds 
strike  her  like  angry  hands,  when  Fear  levels 
his  glittering  dagger  at  her  heart,  Death  holds 


8o  A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT. 

his  gleaming  sword  before  her  eyes,  the  heav- 
ens disappear,  hell  sits.enthroned  in  fiery  flames 
upon  the  clouds;  above  the  deafening  roar  of 
the  maddened  tempest  the  crashing  thunder 
that  made  the  very  dead  tremble  in  the  corrup- 
tion of  their  graves,  and  the  awful  surging  of 


the   blazing   rain,  she   heard   God's   command 
ringing  out  "  Look  not  behind  thee." 

For  an  instant  she  paused  to  cast  an  in- 
effable smile  of  love  upon  the  cherished  ones 
at  her  side,  and  then  before  the  eyes  of  unborn 
millions,  while  all  the  hosts  of  heaven  and  even 
God  himself  stood  appalled  at  her  daring,  she 


A  WOMAN'S  MONUMENT.  81 

slowly  and  deliberately  turned  and  looked 
back;  and  that  one  glance  showed  her  a  sight 
that  froze  her  into  a  beautiful  statue  of  diso- 
bedience, love  and  compassion. 

She  was  loving,  tender,  daring — but  diso- 
bedient! 

Oh,  that  we  might  find  one  woman  in  the 
Old  Testament  meek  and  humble,  to  whom  we 
could  pin  a  faith,  not  born  of  teaching  and 
preaching  and  general  belief,  that  such  a  thing 
as  a  submissive,  obedient,  tractable  woman  or 
wife  ever  did  exist. 


ANOTHER  OF  THE  WOMEN  OF  OLD. 


ANOTHER  OF  THE  WOMEN  OF  OLD. 

At  the  command  of  his  mother,  let  it  be 
remembered,  and  not  because  he  had  any  par- 
ticular desire  to  do  so  himself,  Jacob  left  home 
and  departed  unto  the  land  of  his  mother's 
people,  where  she  told  him  to  seek  a  wife. 

The  life  of  many  men  of  the  Old  Testament 
(after  they  have  reached  man's  estate,  I  mean) 
begins  with  a  love  affair,  and  I  infer  from  that, 
that  the  Bible  means  to  teach  the  lesson  that 
to  love  is  the  first  and  best  business  of  life,  as 
well  as  the  most  entertaining  and  pleasant  thing 
that  this  world  ever  did  or  ever  will  have  to 
offer. 

And  Jacob  reached  the  land  of  Laban,  his 
mother's  brother,  and  stopped  by  a  well  where 
the  flocks  were  watered.  This  is  the  second 
well  which  figures  conspicuously  in  a  love  story 
of  the  Bible,  and  we  imagine  they  were  the 
trysting  places  of  the  ancient  young  lovers. 

While  Jacob  was  loitering  and  gossiping 
with  the  young  men  he  found  there,  "  and  while 


86  ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF   OLD. 

he  yet  spake  with  them,  Rachel  came  with  her 
father's  sheep;  for  she  kept  them." 

Now  "  Rachel  was  beauteous  and  well  fav- 
ored," and  of  course  Jacob  saw  all  this  at  a 
glance,  for  a  man  never  yet  needed  a  telescope 
and  a  week's  time  to  decide  whether  a  woman 
possessed  the  elements  which  constituted  beauty 
in  his  mind  or  not,  and  so  Jacob  gallantly  rolled 
the  stone  away  from  the  well  and  watered  the 
flock  of  Laban,  and  then,  with  all  the  boldness 
which  characterized  his  future  notorious  career, 
he  "  kissed  Rachel,  and  lifted  up  his  voice  and 
wept." 

As  there  could  hardly  be  anything  but 
pleasure  in  kissing  a  lovely  maiden,  we  natu- 
rally infer  that  Jacob  was  very  emotional  and 
was  crying  for  effect,  and  that  Rachel,  with  the 
consummate  tact  that  all  the  women  of  the 
Bible  displayed  when  managing  the  men,  per- 
fectly understood  this,  and  had  as  little  respect 
for  him  at  the  moment  as  most  women  have  for 
a  tearful  man.  A  man  like  Jacob  cries  easily, 
and  when  he  thus  "  lifted  up  his  voice  and 
wept,"  it  is  to  be  hoped  the  girl  entirely  under- 
stood him. 


ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD.  8/ 

And  Jacob's  kiss  is  the  first  one  that  love 
ever  pressed  upon  the  lips  of  a  blushing  maid — 
at  least  it  is  the  first  one  that  is  authoritatively 
recorded. 

At  that  time  Jacob  started  a  fashion  that 
"custom  cannot  stale,"  a  fashion  that  while 
time  lasts  shall  be  as  cheap  as  roses,  laughter 
and  sunshine,  as  thrilling  as  wine,  as  sweet  as 
innocence  and  as  new  as  love,  a  fashion  that 
wealth,  time  or  country  cannot  monopolize,  and 
one  that  is  as  sweet  to  the  beggar,  and 
sweeter  too,  than  to  the  king. 

At  the  end  of  one 
short  month  we 
find    him 


88  ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD. 

so  desperately  enamored  that  he  said  to  Laban, 
Rachel's  father:  "  I  will  serve  thee  seven  years 
for  thy  younger  daughter;"  and  the  old  gentle- 
man, seeing  an  opportunity  to  get  a  hired  man 
cheap,  consented. 

"And  Jacob  served  seven  years  for  Rachel, 
and  they  seemed  unto  him  but  a  few  days  for 
the  love  he  had  to  her." 

What  a  world  of  devotion  that  one  sentence 
reveals.  As  we  read  that  we  forget  all  about 
the  prosaic  age  in  which  we  live;  forget  the 
modern  I'11-give-you-a-brown-stone-front-and- 
diamonds  -  in  -  exchange  -  for  -  your  -youth  -  and  - 
beauty-love,  and  believe  in  the  kind  that  makes 
a  man  a  god  and  a  woman  an  angel,  and  we 
imagine  that  an  affection  so  intense  and  deep 
that  it  could  make  seven  weary  years  of  labor 
"seem  but  a  few  days"  must  be  as  constant  as 
the  flowing  tide,  as  steadfast  as  the  stars — and 
then  after  a  while  we  are  desperately,  despair- 
ingly sorry  that  we  have  read  any  further  than 
that  verse  because  we  are  so  sadly  disillusioned. 

For  a  little  further  on  we  find  that  Jacob 
wasn't  as  shrewd  about  getting  married  as  he 
was  about  breeding  cattle  that  were  ring- 
streaked  and  grizzled,  and  so  Laban,  with  the 


ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD.  QI 

cunning  of  a  modern  politician,  palmed  off  his 
daughter  Leah  on  Jacob  as  a  bride.  But  the 
next  morning,  when  he  discovered  the  trick, 
there  were  probably  matinees,  side-shows  and 
circuses  in  the  tent  of  Laban,  and  finally  the 
upshot  of  the  whole  affair  was  that  he  agreed 
to  serve  seven  years  more  for  Rachel,  and  then 
married  her  also.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  dis- 
parage Jacob's  love,  but  we  cannot  help  but 
notice  that  we  have  no  inspired  statement  say- 
ing that  the  seven  years  he  served  for  Rachel, 
after  he  had  married  her,  "seemed  but  a  few 
days  for  the  love  he  had  to  her." 

But  we  can't  censure  him  for  that,  for  as  we 
read  we  discover  that  in  his  earnest  and  con- 
stant endeavor  to  save  his  precious  person  he 
had  no  time  to  nurture  his  love.  For  the  two 
wives,  the  two  sisters,  were  madly  jealous  of 
each  other  of  course  (and  we  can't  blame  them 
either,  for  there  never  was  a  man  so  great  that 
he  could  be  divided  between  two  wives,  several 
handmaids  and  more  concubines,  and  be  enough 
of  him  to  go  around  satisfactorily)  and  they 
made  his  life  a  howling  wilderness. 

Leah,  poor  thing,  longed  for  her  fraudulent 
husband's  love,  and  he  hated  her.  Rachel 


92  ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD. 

"envied  her  sister,"  arid  "Jacob's  anger  was 
kindled  against  Rachel,"  and  altogether  the 
picture  of  their  home  is  not  very  enticing,  and 
having  gotten  thus  far  we  are  more  than  ever 
convinced  that  we  do  not  want  to  follow  the 
example  of  the  "holy  women"  of  old,  as  Peter 
complimentarily,  but  ignorantly,  calls  them. 

And  Rachel  and  Leah,  in  order  to  spite  and 
humble  each  other,  each  gave  her  maid  "to 
Jacob  to  wife  "  and  strange  as  it  may  seem,  he 
accepted  them  both.  It  was  like  him. 

Now  about  this  time  Leah's  son  "found 
mandrakes  in  the  field"  and  brought  them  to 
his  mother.  We  suppose  Rachel  had  a  sweet 
tooth  from  the  fact  that  a  little  further  on  we 
find  her  offering  to  sell  her  husband  for  one 
night  to  Leah,  for  some  mandrakes,  whatever 
they  were;  and  we  notice  that  women  held 
their  husbands  rather  cheap  in  those  good  old 
days. 

You  see  Rachel  and  Leah  made  Jacob  a 
thing  of  barter  and  sale  and  (without  consult- 
ing his  desires)  Leah  consummated  the  bargain, 
and  she  went  out  toward  the  field  when  the 
harvest  was  progressing,  and  met  Jacob  as  he 


ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF   OLD.  93 

came  from  his  work  tired  and  dusty,  and  in- 
formed him  he  must  come  with  her,  "For  surely 
I  have  hired  thee  with  my  son's  mandrakes," 
and  he  did  not  resent  the  insulting  idea  that  he 
had  been  "  hired,"  but  like  all  the  other  dis- 
tractingly  obedient  men  of  the  Bible — he  went. 

Rachel  next  distinguishes  herself  as  a  dis- 
obedient daughter  and  headstrong  wife  by 
"stealing  her  father's  gods"  without  consulting 
or  confiding  in  her  husband,  for  we  read  that 
"Jacob  knew  not  that  Rachel  had  stolen  them." 

And  Laban,  Rachel's  father,  and  Jacob  had 
a  lively  altercation,  and  they  said  exceedingly 
naughty  things  to  each  other  in  loud  voices,  but 
at  last  they  came  to  an  agreement,  and  Laban 
said  he  would  give  up  his  children,  grandchil- 
dren and  cattle,  but  he  was  bound  to  have  his 
"gods"  or  know  the  reason  why.  The  entire 
story  is  a  curious  mixture  of  heathenism  and 
belief  in  one  God. 

Then  Jacob  rose  in  all  the  confidence  of 
perfect  innocence  and  told  him  he  might  search 
the  whole  camp  for  all  he  cared,  and  he  added 
in  his  outraged  dignity,  "with  whomsoever  thou 
findest  thy  gods,  let  him  not  live." 


94 


ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD. 


You  will  observe  by  that  that  it  was  a  terri- 
ble crime  to  steal  "gods,"  and  as  it  is  the  first 
offense  of  the  kind  on  record,  you  can  infer 


what  a  reckless,  ungovernable  female  Rachel 
must  have  been  to  do  so  dreadful  an  act. 

Well,  Laban  went  like  a  cyclone  "unto  Jacob's 
tent"    (notice   what. humiliation   and  disgrace 


ANOTHER    OF   THE    WOMEN    OF    OLD.  95 

Rachel  subjected  her  husband  to,  and  what  a 
scandal  it  must  have  raised  in  the  neighbor- 
hood), and  into  Leah's  tent  and  into  the  two 
maid-servants'  tents;  but  he  found  them  not, 
Then  he  entered  into  Rachel's  tent. 

Now  she  had  hidden  the  precious  little 
images  in  the  camel's  furniture  and  sat  upon 
them,  and  she  said  she  didn't  feel  very  well  this 
morning,  papa  dear,  or  words  to  that  effect, 
and  she  hoped  he  would  excuse  her  for  not 
arising;  and  she  probably  smiled  sweetly,  put 
her  arm  around  his  neck,  and  finally  did  him 
up  completely  by  kissing  him  tenderly;  and  of 
course,  as  in  those  days  men  never  dreamed  of 
asking  a  woman  to  do  anything  she  didn't  want 
to  do,  papa  dear  did  not  insist  upon  her  arising, 
and  so  missed  his  sole  and  only  chance  of 
getting  his  "gods." 

It  was  a  very  serious  and  perhaps  terrible 
loss  to  her  father,  and  we  can  gather  no  idea 
from  the  scripture  why  she  did  it  unless  out  of 
pure  spite,  or  else  she  wanted  to  use  them  as 
bric-a-brac  in  the  new  home  to  which  she  was 
going. 

In  the  history  of  the  "beauteous  and  well- 
favored  "  Rachel  and  the  "  tender-eyed  "  Leah, 


g6  ANOTHER   OF   THE   WOMEN   OF    OLD. 

we  find  hatred,  deadly  jealousy,  anger,  strife, 
dissensions  and  envy,  but  none  of  the  forbear- 
ance, self-sacrifice,  obedience,  meekness  and 
submission  that  we  have  been  taught  that  the 
ladies  of  the  Old  Testament  possessed,  and  we 
are  almost  sorry  that  we  didn't  take  the  preach- 
er's "say  so"  for  it,  instead  of  studying  the 
Bible  diligently  and  intelligently  for  ourselves. 


ALL  NAUGHTY,  BUT  FAIR. 


ALL  NAUGHTY,  BUT  FAIR. 

The  next  young  lady  whom  the  Old  Testa- 
ment presents  for  our  admiration  and  edification 
is  Dinah,  the  daughter  of  Jacob  and  Leah,  who 
set  the  passionate  but  agonizing  style  of  "  loving 
not  wisely,  but  too  well,"  and  brought  about  one 
of  the  shrewdest  military  stratagems  that  was 
ever  perpetrated,  a  terrible  massacre,  and  the 
slavery  of  many  innocent  women  and  children. 

Several  other  ladies  are  mentioned  casually 
and  then  we  come  to  Tamar,  whose  father-in- 
law,  Judah,  had  broken  his  solemn  promise  and 
defrauded  her  of  her  rights.  And  did  she  sub- 
missively consent  to  be  deprived  of  her  just 
dues?  Not  at  all.  She  simply  disguised  her- 
self, and  by  deception  and  a  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  man's  nature,  mixed  up  with  a  shrewd 
business  tact,  completely  out-generaled  her  dear 
papa-in-law,  gained  her  revenge,  and  by  a  saga- 
cious artifice  protected  herself  from  the  possible 
consequences  of  her  folly  and  from  future  pun- 
ishment by  persuading  Judah  to  give  her,  as  a 


IOO         ALL  NAUGHTY,  BUT  FAIR. 

pledge  of  his  good  faith,  "his  signet  and  brace- 
lets and  staff."  In  short,  she  was  the  original 
pawn-broker  of  the  world;  and  Judah  left  his 
treasures  "in  escrow"  until  he  could  redeem 
them  by  delivering  her  a  kid  in  liquidation  of 
his  debt. 

And  for  many  days  the  sun  blazed  and 
faded,  the  stars  sparkled  and  paled,  and  the 
moon  rode  high  in  silvery  radiance;  the  winds 
and  birds  and  flowers  blushed  and  sang  and 
sighed,  and  in  due  course  of  time  Judah  sent  a 
kid  to  redeem  his  valuables,  but  alas!  Tamar 
had  slipped  away  and  left  no  trace  by  which 
she  could  be  identified,  and  Judah,  who  had 
broken  his  pledge,  was  left  in  suspense. 

But  finally  the  time  of  retribution  came,  as 
come  it  does  and  must  to  every  possessor  of  a 
pawn  ticket.  The  days,  those  bright  beads  on 
the  rosary  of  time,  were  counted  one  by  one 
and  shadows  began  to  gather  about  the  fair 
name  of  Tamar.  Then  the  whispers  of  suspicion 
grew  to  pealing  thunders  of  scandal  which 
reached  and  shocked  the  good  Judah,  and  he 
rose  up  in  his  moral  rectitude  and  righteous  in- 
dignation at  such  depravity  and  cried:  "Bring 
her  forth  and  let  her  be  burnt." 


ALL    NAUGHTY,    BUT    FAIR.  10 1 

But  my  lady,  with  a  woman's  wit,  had  fore- 
seen this  possible  denouncement  and  punish- 
ment, and  prepared  for  it,  and  she  quietly  sent 
the  articles  he  had  left  in  pawn,  and  humbled 
him  to  the  very  dust  with  her  message. 

"  Discern,  I  pray  thee,  whose  are  these,  the 
signet  and  bracelets  and  staff  ?  "  And  I  will  add 
here  that  there  was  no  fire,  because  Tamar  skill- 
fully avoided  being  the  fuel. 

I  do  not  relate  the  above  to  harrow  up  your 
feelings,  but  simply  to  show  you  the  stuff  the 
women  of  the  Old  Testament  were  made  of. 

About  this  time  the  matchless  Joseph  ap- 
pears upon  the  stage  of  the  Old  Testament  as 
the  monument  of  masculine  virtue,  and  lo  !  the 
woman  in  the  case  enters  upon  the  scene  in  the 
shape  of  Potiphar's  wife,  and  plays  her  part  in 
the  comedy  or  tragedy — as  you  happen  to  look 
at  it — in  Joseph's  life. 

She  doesn't  come  before  the  public  with  a 
burst  of  melody,  a  blaze  of  light  and  the  entic- 
ing music  of  applause,  but  she  enters  softly, 
quietly  she  "casts  her  eyes  upon  Joseph"  and 
she  sees  he  is  "  a  goodly  person  and  well  fav- 
ored " — and  the  mischief  is  done.  She  lavished 


IO2  ALL    NAUGHTY,    BUT    FAIR. 

her  wealth  in  all  the  follies,  fashions  and  pleas- 
ures of  her  time  to  attract  him;  she  met  him  in 
the  hall;  gave  him  roses  in  the  garden,  smiled 
at  him  from  the  doorway.  When  she  slept  she 
dreamed  sweet  dreams  of  kisses  and  soft  hand- 
clasps. When  she  lifted  her  gaze  to  the  stars, 
'twas  his  eyes  she  saw  there.  When  she 
walked  by  the  river's  side,  the  rippling  waters 
were  no  sweeter  than  his  voice.  When  the 
summer  wind,  perfume-laden,  fanned  her  face 
she  fancied  'twas  his  warm  breath  on  her  cheek. 
Then  she  forgot  husband  and  duty,  heaven  and 
hell,  and  she  listened  for  his  footsteps,  lingered 
for  his  coming,  watched  and  waited  for  his 
smile — and  all  in  vain. 

And  Joseph,  who  loved  this  woman  with  an 
incomparable  love;  this  woman  who  from  the 
eminence  of  her  wealth,  rank  and  beauty,  in  the 
utter  abandonment  of  her  passion  cast  herself 
at  his  feet,  Joseph  was  man  enough  to  bend  and 
sway  and  falter  before  her  temptations,  but  for 
friendship's  sake,  for  honor's  sake,  for  the  sake 
of  her  he  loved,  divine  enough  to  resist  them. 

Out  from  among  the  seductive  fables  and 
shocking  facts  of  history  Joseph  stands  forth  a 
shining  example  as  the  first  man,  and  perhaps 


ALL    NAUGHTY,    BUT    FAIR.  103 

the  last,  who  loved  a  woman  so  well  that  he 
refused  her  outstretched  arms,  declined  the 
kisses  from  her  lips,  rejected  the  reckless  invi- 
tation in  her  eyes,  and  saved  her  from  himself. 
Who  loved  with  a  passion  so  tender  and  deep 
that,  unlike  all  other  men,  he  refused  to  make 
her  he  loved  a  victim  on  the  altar  of  his  pas- 
sions, but  would  have  enshrined  her  there  a  god- 
dess, "pure  as  ice  and  chaste  as  snow." 

Men  have  always  sacrificed  women  "who 
loved  not  wisely,  but  too  well"  upon  the  altar 
of  their  own  selfishness,  but  Joseph  saved  her 
and  taught  the  world  what  true  love  is. 

The  facts  of  history  stab  our  faith  in  man's 
love,  woman's  constancy,  friendship,  honor  and 
truth,  but  Joseph's  peerless  example  revives  it, 
and  we  feel  that  there  are  characters  that  are 
incorruptible,  honesty  that  is  unassailable,  virtue 
that  is  impregnable  and  friendship  that  is  undy- 
ing. He  shines  out  from  among  the  other 
characters  of  the  Old  Testament  as  distinctly 
and  clearly  as  a  star  breaking  through  the  sullen 
clouds  of  heaven,  as  a  lily  blowing  and  floating 
above  the  green  scum  and  sluggish  waters,  as  a 
rose  blooming  in  a  wilderness.  Thank  the  Lord 
for  Joseph! 


104  ALL    NAUGHTY,    BUT    FAIR. 

But  Potiphar's  wife,  womanlike,  scorned  a 
love  that  would  make  her  an  angel  instead  of  a 
victim,  and  by  a  succession  of  plausible,  neat 
little  lies,  gained  her  husband's  ear,  had  Joseph 
cast  into  prison,  and  teaches  us  that,  indeed, 
"  Hell  hath  no  fury  like  a  woman  scorned." 

But  what  we  wanted  to  say  was,  that  she  was 
a  faithless  wife,  a  reckless  lover,  a  revengeful 
and  unforgiving  woman,  since  Joseph  was  left 
to  languish  in  captivity  for  two  long  years, 
without  any  effort  on  her  part,  as  far  as  we  can 
learn  or  infer,  to  accomplish  his  release. 

At  this  period  in  the  history  of  the  Jews  a 
new  king  arose  in  Egypt,  and  fearing  the  great 
number  of  the  Jews,  he  "set  over  them  task- 
masters, to  afflict  them  with  their  burdens;" 
"but  the  more  they  afflicted  them  the  more  they 
multiplied  and  grew." 

Then  the  king,  in  the  usual  arrogance  of 
power,  ignorantly  supposing  that  women  were 
obedient  and  never  dreaming  they  would  dare 
to  disregard  the  commands  of  royalty,  spoke  to 
the  Hebrew  midwives,  and  in  the  easy,  off- 
hand manner  that  kings  had  in  those  days,  told 
them  to  kill  all  the  boy  babies  that  came  to  the 
Jews,  but  to  save  the  girl  babies  alive. 


ALL    NAUGHTY,    BUT    FAIR.  105 

And  did  they  do  it?  Not  at  all!  They  sim- 
ply looked  at  each  other,  laughed  at  the  king, 
and  utterly  ignored  his  commands,  and  then 
when  majesty  in  dread  power  called  them  to 
account,  with  a  shrewdness  characteristic  of  the 
females  of  the  Old  Testament  they  invented  a 
plausible  excuse,  baffled  the  king,  shielded  the 
Jews  and  saved  themselves. 


STORY  OF  SOME  WOMEN  AND  A  BABY. 


STORY  OF  SOME  WOMEN  AND  A  BABY. 

So  the  king  was  balked  by  the  Hebrew 
midwives  and  the  Jews  continued  to  "increase 
abundantly  and  multiplied,  and  waxed  exceed- 
ing mighty;  and  the  land  was  filled  with  them." 

And  the  king,  fearing  the  multitude  of  the 
Jews,  again  pitted  himself  against  the  fecundity 
and  rebellion  of  the  women,  and  issued  the 
cruel  but  famous  command  : 

"And  Pharaoh  charged  all  the  people,  say- 
ing, Every  son  that  is  born  ye  shall  cast  into 
the  river,  and  every  daughter  ye  shall  save 
alive." 

And  shortly  after  that,  one  night  when  all 
the  Egyptians  slept,  and  only  the  stars,  the 
moon  and  the  winds  were  awake,  in  the  silence 
and  the  silvery  gloom,  a  baby  boy  came  to  a 
daughter  of  Levi,  and  "  when  she  saw  him  that 
he  was  a  goodly  child  "  she  quietly  determined 
that  no  murderous  hand  should  ever  toss  him 
in  the  rolling  river,  or  check  the  breath  on  his 
sweet  lips;  "and  she  hid  him  three  months." 


110        STORY   OF   SOME   WOMEN   AND   A    BABY. 

I  don't  know  how  she  did  it,  but  perhaps 
when  he  was  crying  with  all  a  baby's  vigor  for 
his  supper  the  embryo  diplomat  in  his  heart 
shrewdly  caught  the  meaning  in  his  mother's 
warning  "  hush,  sh  !"  and,  king  and  tyrant  tho' 
he  was,  he  knew  "that  there  was  a  greater  than 
he,"  and  stilled  his  cries.  Perhaps  when  the 
colic  gripped  his  vitals  he  bore  the  pain  in  un- 
flinching silence,  if  he  heard  an  Egyptian  foot- 
step near  the  door.  Perhaps  he  stopped  his 
gooing  and  cooing  in  his  hidden  nest,  and  held 
his  very  breath  in  fear,  when  he  heard  an 
Egyptian  voice  in  the  house. 

And  all  these  three  months  he  had  been 
growing  plump,  and  strong  and  healthy,  and  I 
suppose  he  became  a  little  reckless,  or  per- 
chance he  began  to  think  he  knew  more  than 
his  mother  did  about  it,  and  wouldn't  keep  still. 
Anyway,  whatever  was  the  matter  I  don't  know, 
but  there  came  a  day  when  "she  could  no 
longer  hide  him,"  and  then  she  laid  a  plot  to 
baffle  the  king,  defeat  death  and  save  the  child. 

Being  an  ambitious  woman  as  well  as  a  lov- 
ing mother,  she  was  not  content  that  he  should 
be  as  other  children,  forced  "  to  serve  with 
rigor "  and  his  life  made  "  bitter  with  hard 


STORY    OF    SOME    WOMEN   AND   A   BABY.         Ill 

bondage  in  mortar  and  brick  and  in  all  manner 
of  service  of  the  field."  I  presume  she  thought 
he  was  a  little  more  beautiful  and  more  clever 
than  any  child  that  ever  lived  before,  for  we  all 
do  that  when  a  baby  comes  without  an  invita- 
tion and  often  against  our  most  urgent  wishes, 
and  nestling  in  our  arms  says,  without  uttering 
a  word  :  "  I've  come  to  stay  and  I  want  my 
supper;  I'm  hungry,  for  the  journey  has  been 
long  and  dark — and  why  don't  you  make 
haste?" 

Perhaps  she  had  caught  the  fire  of  the  future 
statesman  in  his  dark  eye;  perhaps  she  had 
heard  the  ring  of  sublimity  in  the  melodious 
voice  that  afterward  said  "  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother."  Perhaps  she  had  seen  the 
shrewdness  of  the  future  great  diplomat  in  his 
maneuvers  to  have  his  baby  way,  and  being  a 
bright  woman  she  set  her  wits  to  work  to  defy 
the  king,  defeat  his  law  and  elude  the  cruel 
vigilance  of  the  Egyptian  spies;  and  she  con- 
ceived a  plot  which  for  boldness  of  thought  and 
shrewdness  of  execution  stands  unsurpassed. 
She  would  not  save  him  to  live  the  toilsome, 
slavish  life  of  the  Jews.  She  sighed  for  all  the 
advantages  of  the  Egyptians.  She  lifted  her 


112        STORY   OF    SOME   WOMEN   AND   A   BABY. 

ambitious  eyes  to  the  royal  household  itself,  and 
in  spite  of  the  accident  of  birth,  in  spite  of  king 
and  law  and  hatred,  in  spite  of  the  fatal  fact 
that  he  was  a  dark-eyed,  dark-haired  Jew,  she 
vowed  he  should  mingle  with  royal  nabobs, 
laugh  and  thrive  and  prosper  under  the  very 
eye  of  his  enemy  the  king,  be  clothed  in  purple 
and  fine  linen,  skilled  in  all  the  arts  and  learned 
in  all  the  sciences  of  the  Egyptians;  and  she 
was  clever  enough  to  see  at  a  glance  that  in 
this  almost  hopeless  scheme  she  must  have 
accomplices. 

And  where  did  she  turn  for  aid?  To  her 
husband,  as  a  meek,  submissive  and  obedient 
woman  naturally  would?  Not  at  all.  Perhaps 
she  doubted  the  intelligence  of  his  assistance. 
Perhaps  she  had  no  faith  in  his  courage  for  the 
undertaking.  Perhaps  she  did  not  believe  he 
could  keep  a  secret;  at  any  rate  she  refused 
to  confide  in  him.  I  suppose,  as  no  mention  is 
made  of  it,  she  utterly  ignored  him,  scorned  to 
ask  his  advice,  and  planned  to  dispose  of  his 
child  without  telling  him  of  it,  much  less  asking 
his  permission. 

But  where  did  she  turn  for  aid?  Did  she 
clothe  herself  in  the  gayest  costume  of  the  Jews, 


STORY   OF    SOME    WOMEN   AND   A   BABY.          113 

and,  conscious  of  her  beauty,  try  with  smiles 
and  coquetry  and  caressing  touch  to  beguile 
the  King?  No.  Did  she  steal  into  the  tent  of 
his  greatest  general  and  kneeling  at  his  feet 
seek  to  bribe  him  with  her  love?  No.  She 
simply  and  utterly  ignored  the  men,  and  selected 
the  King's  own  daughter  as  the  instrument  to 
execute  her  design.  She  knew  the  royal  girl 
came  down  to  the  river  to  bathe,  and  trusting 
in  her  baby's  great  gift  of  unrivaled  beauty 
and  the  woman's  compassion,  she  planned  a 
dramatic  surprise  for  her. 

"And  when  she  could  not  longer  hide  him, 
she  took  him  an  ark  of  bulrushes,  and  daubed 
it  with  slime  and  pitch  and  put  the  child 
therein.  And  she  laid  it  among  the  flags  by 
the  river's  brink."  But  before  she  put  him  in 
it  she  bathed  him  in  perfumed  water  to  make 
him  sweet,  put  on  his  prettiest  dress,  tied  up 
his  short  sleeves  with  something  that  just 
matched  the  color  in  his  cheeks,  and  borrowed 
a  golden  chain  of  an  Egyptian  woman  to  clasp 
about  his  milk-white  neck.  Then  she  lined  the 
ark  with  roses,  laid  a  little  pillow  in  the  bottom, 
put  the  baby  softly  in,  partly  closed  the  top  to 
shield  him  from  too  much  light  and  air,  and 


114         STORY    OF   SOME   WOMEN    AND   A   BABY. 

laid  it  among  the  flags  by  the  river's  brink;  and 
then  the  cleverness  that  had  designed  the 
scheme  and  the  bravery  that  had  executed  it  so 
far,  was  overwhelmed  by  a  mother's  love  and 
she  fled,  and  hid  herself  among  the  foliage  and 
the  reeds,  too  frightened  to  watch  the  result; 
"but  his  sister  stood  afar  off  to  wit  what 
would  be  done  to  him." 

And  the  baby  had  a  nice  time  while  he 
waited,  for  the  wind  with  noiseless  feet  and  in- 
visible hands  came  and  softly  rocked  the  cradle 
to  and  fro;  the  sunbeams  sent  a  bright  ray  and 
put  golden  bracelets  on  his  wrists,  which  with 
the  true  instinct  of  human  nature  he  tried  to 
catch  and  hold,  and  the  birds  coming  down  to 
wash  in  the  rippling  waters  peeped  into  the 
cradle,  and,  enraptured  with  the  pretty  sight, 
forgot  to  bathe,  but  stopped  to  sing. 

And  the  King's  daughter  and  her  maidens 
came  laughing  and  singing  down  to  the  river's 
brink  to  bathe,  as  was  their  custom  —  a  custom 
which  baby's  mother  knew  about  and  took 
advantage  of. 

And  the  girls  spied  the  basket  and  wondered 
what  it  was,  and  finally  the  royal  damsel  "  sent 
her  maid  to  fetch  it."  And  Pharaoh's  daughter 


\ 


STORY   OF   SOME    WOMEN   AND   A    BABY.          1 17 

opened  it  and  "she  saw  the  child,"  and  the 
girls  crowded  around  and  gazed  in  silent  admir- 
ation. Then  the  baby,  who  never  before  had 
seen  the  purple  and  fine  linen  of  majesty  or  the 
sparkling  jewels  of  wealth,  knowing  this  was 
the  opportunity  of  his  life  put  up  his  hands  in 
welcome  and  said  in  the  universal  language  of 
babyhood,  "Ah,  goo!  ah,  goo!"  He  was  a 
worthy  child  of  a  great  mother,  and  the  minute 
he  was  left  to  himself  he  came  before  the  foot- 
lights and  with  one  word  captivated  his  audi- 
ence, and  a  storm  of  kisses  fell  upon  his  lips 
and  neck  and  arms.  And  when  the  girls  ceased 
lest  they  should  kiss  him  to  death,  he  looked 
at  them  a  minute,  and  then  he  opened  his 
mouth  and  laughed  a  little  soft,  gurgling  laugh; 
a  laugh  so  sweet  that  I'm  sure  even  the  terrible 
God  of  the  Jews  must  have  smiled  had  he 
heard  it. 

He  didn't  laugh  because  he  felt  particularly 
funny,  but  because  the  little  diplomat,  bent  on 
conquest,  wanted  to  show  a  tiny  tooth  that 
came  into  his  mouth  one  day,  he  didn't  know 
how. 

He  had  never  seen  it  himself,  but  he  knew 
it  was  there  and  was  a  treasure,  for  one  time  in 


Il8         STORY    OF   SOME    WOMEN   AND   A   BABY. 

the  dead  of  the  night  when  all  his  dread  ene- 
mies, the  Egyptians,  were  fast  asleep,  and  the 
wind  howled  and  the  rain  beat  upon  the  roof, 
his  mother  brought  his  father  to  his  hiding 
place  and  holding  the  light  high  up  above  his 
head,  she  touched  him  lightly  under  the  chin 
and  said:  "Laugh,  now,  and  show  papa  baby's 
tooth."  Then  he  did  as  he  was  told  and  his 
father  looked  long  and  carefully  and  then 
laughed  too,  kissed  him  and  went  away. 

When  the  girls  saw  it  they  all  smiled  and 
kissed  him  too. 

About  this  time  he  wanted  his  mother  and 
"the  babe  wept." 

When  the  king's  daughter  saw  his  red  lips 
quivering  and  the  tears  hanging  on  his  long, 
curling  lashes,  love  and  compassion  filled  her 
heart,  and  thinking  of  her  father's  wicked  com- 
mand: "Every  son  that  is  born  ye  shall  cast 
into  the  river,"  she  said,  sadly,  "this  is  one  of 
the  Hebrews'  children." 

Then  his  sister — I  suppose  it  was  the  same 
one  who  had  "  stood  afar  off  to  wit  what 
would  be  done  to  him"  and  who  had  approached 
— said,  "  Shall  I  go  and  call  to  thee  a  nurse  of 


STORY    OF   SOME   WOMEN   AND    A   BABY. 


the   Hebrew  women,  that  she  may  nurse  the 
child  for  thee?" 

"And  Pharaoh's  daughter  said  to  her,  '  Go.' 
And  the  maid  went  and  called  the  child's 
mother." 

"And    Pharaoh's   daughter   said    unto    her, 
'  Take  this  child  away  and  nurse  it  for  me  and 
I  will  give  thee  thy  wages.'    And  the  woman 
took  the  child  and  nursed  it."     Wasn't 
that  the  sublimest  conquering  of  ambi- 
tion and  crime  by  love  ever  known? 

I  suppose  the  King's 
daughter    went    every 
day  to  see  the  little 
black- eyed    beauty 
and   kiss   his  rosy 
lips,  his  soft  white 
neck,  his  dimpled 
arms;   and    every 
kiss  strengthened 
her  determination  to 
defy   the  King,  her 
father  and  the 
law,  and  save  this 
baby  for  her  own. 


I2O         STORY   OF   SOME   WOMEN   AND   A   BABY. 

I  don't  know  how  she  managed  it,  but  some- 
how she  overcame  all  obstacles,  and  they  were 
many  and  great  there  is  no  doubt,  and  "he 
became  her  son,"  and  the  future  lawgiver  of 
the  Jews,  and  the  world  was  saved. 

And  so  after  all  we  owe  the  ten  command- 
ments to  a  Jewish  woman's  wit,  strategy  and 
love,  and  an  Egyptian  woman's  compassion 
and  disobedience,  for  the  stern  command  that 
"  Every  son  that  is  born  ye  shall  cast  into  the 
river"  was  not  given  to  the  army,  the  navy  or 
the  church,  to  one  man  or  woman,  to  doctors 
or  midvvives,  but  to  "  all  the  people,"  and  in 
this  affair  there  were  a  number  of  women,  who 
all  connived  to  foil  the  "powers  that  be"  and 
refused  to  do  the  King's  bidding.  First  there 
was  the  mother  of  Moses  and  the  sister,  the 
King's  daughter,  her  maid  and  "her  maidens" 
who  came  down  to  the  river's  brink  with  her, 
at  least  two  of  them  and  perhaps  twenty. 

I  fail  to  find  in  their  example  any  of  the 
vaunted  submission,  obedience  and  docility  we 
have  been  taught  by  those  who  did  not  read 
their  Bible  intelligently,  or  took  some  other 
person's  "  say-so "  for  it,  and  which  are  the 
vaunted  characteristics  of  all  these  women. 


STORY   OF   SOME   WOMEN   AND   A   BABY.          121 

They  just  simply  scorned  all  the  men  and 
the  laws  whenever  they  did  not  suit  their  ideas 
of  right  and  justice,  and  proceeded  to  have 
their  own  way  in  spite  of  everything. 


ANOTHER  OF  "THE  MISTAKES 
OF  MOSES." 


ANOTHER  OF  "THE  MISTAKES  OF  MOSES." 

"And  it  came  to  pass  in  those  days,  when 
Moses  was  grown,  that  he  went  out  unto  his 
brethren  and  looked  on  their  burdens,  and  he 
spied  an  Egyptian  smiting  an  Hebrew,  one  of 
his  brethren. 

"And  he  looked  this  way  and  that  way,  and 
when  he  saw  that  there  was  no  man,  he  slew 
the  Egyptian,  and  hid  him  in  the  sand." 

Yet  we  are  told  a  little  farther  on  "  Now  the 
man  Moses  was  very  meek,  above  all  the  men 
which  were  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  But 
we  haven't  anything  to  do  with  his  meekness, 
and  only  mention  the  murder  because  thereby 
hangs  the  tale  of  Moses'  first  love  affair. 

"  Murder  will  out,"  and  so  in  due  course  of 
time  the  King  heard  about  it  and  "  sought  to 
slay  Moses."  "  But  Moses  fled  from  the  face 
of  Pharaoh,  and  dwelt  in  the  land  of  Midian, 
and  he  sat  down  by  a  well." 

Now  when  we  read  about  the  young  men  of 
the  Bible  hanging  around  a  "well"  we  know 


126    ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES." 

what  is  going  to  happen.  There  is  romance  in 
the  air  and  a  love  affair  soon  develops,  for  that 
seems  to  have  been  love's  trysting  place.  And 
I  suppose  he  neglected  no  artifice  of  the  toilet 
that  might  enchance  his  personal  charms,  that 
he  donned  the  most  costly  and  elegant  of  his 
Egyptian  costumes,  flung  himself  in  courtly 
indolence  upon  the  sand,  and  waited  and 
watched  eagerly  for  the  rich  girls  to  come 
down  to  the  well  to  water  their  father's  flocks, 
just  as  one  watches  in  the  twilight  for  the  first 
star  to  sparkle  in  the  azure  overhead,  for  the 
first  sunbeam  of  the  morning  or  the  first  rose  of 
June. 

''  Now  the  priest  of  Midian  had  seven 
daughters,  and  they  came  and  drew  water  and 
filled  the  troughs  to  water  their  father's  flock. 
And  the  shepherds  came  and  drove  them  away, 
but  Moses  stood  up  and  helped  them,  and 
watered  their  flock." 

And  who  can  blame  Moses  if  he  happened 
to  wear  his  best  raiment?  Everything  and 
everybody  knows,  and  always  has  known,  that 
love  loves  the  beautiful;  and  each  one  according 
to  his  light  takes  advantage  of  the  fact.  So  the 
wild  maiden,  when  love  with  magic  finger 


ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES   OF    MOSES."     12? 

touches  her  quivering  heart,  stains  her  teeth  a 
blacker  black,  hangs  more  beads  and  shells 
about  her  dirty  neck  and  ankles,  and  practices 
all  her  rude  arts  of  coquetry.  And  her  savage 
lover,  charmed  with  her  charms,  sticks  the  gay- 
est feathers  in  his  hair,  rubs  a  more  liberal  sup- 
ply of  grease  upon  his  polished,  shiny  skin,  and 
makes  himself  brave  with  all  his  weapons  of 
war.  So  the  birds  only  seek  love's  trysting 
place  in  the  springtime  when  their  plumage  is 
the  most  brilliant  and  their  songs  the  sweetest, 
and  the  fishes  when  their  colors  are  the  bright- 
est. And  the  woman  of  our  day  and  genera- 
tion, when  love's  arrow  "tipped  with  a  jewel 
and  shot  from  a  golden  string  "  pierces  her  vital 
organ,  wears  her  dress  a  little  more  de'collete', 
bangs  her  hair  more  bangy,  clasps  more  dia- 
monds round  her  throat,  dispenses  with  sleeves 
altogether,  smiles  her  sweetest  smile  and  laughs 
her  gayest  laugh.  And  he,  the  modern  man, 
caught  in  the  snare,  buys  the  shiniest  stovepipe 
hat  and  nobbiest  cane,  dons  his  gaudiest  neck- 
tie and  widest  trousers  —  and  after  all,  beasts 
and  birds  and  fishes,  savage  and  civilized,  we 
are  all  alike  and  ruled  by  the  same  instinct  and 


128    ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES." 

passion,  and  "why  should  the  spirit  of  mortal 
be  proud?" 

I  presume  Zipporah,  one  of  the  priest's 
daughters,  had  heard  about  the  elegant  and 
courtly  Egyptian  who  was  in  the  neighborhood, 
and  she  no  doubt  adorned  herself  with  all  her 
jewels,  wore  the  finest  finery  in  her  wardrobe 
and  wreathed  her  lips  in  smiles;  for  she  knew 
that  love  lives  and  thrives  on  smiles  and  roses, 
coquetry  and  gallantry,  on  laughter  and  sweet 
glances,  and  faints  and  dies  on  frowns,  neglect 
and  angry  words;  and  so  she  tripped  down  to 
the  well,  bent  on  conquest.  Then  she  flung 
back  the  drapery  to  show  her  dimpled  arms, 
and  drawing  water  filled  the  trough;  then  the 
"shepherds  came  and  drove  them  away;  but 
Moses  stood  up  and  helped  them,  and  watered 
their  flocks."  Was  he  not  gallant,  and  a  strik- 
ing contrast  to  the  ugly  shepherds? 

And  of  course  Moses  told  her  that  it  almost 
broke  his  heart  to  see  her  performing  such 
menial  labor,  and  all  such  sweet  fictitious  stuff, 
and  she  glanced  at  him  admiringly  from  under 
her  long,  curling  lashes,  and  the  "rebel  rose  hue 
dyed  her  cheek,"  and  he  told  her  about  the 
great  court  where  he  had  been  reared,  and  she 


ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.       I2Q 

whispered  that  her  papa  was  the  rich  priest  of 
Midian;  then  they  clasped  hands  lingeringly  and 
said  a  soft  good-night. 

It  seems  the  old  gentleman  kept  a  pretty 
close  watch  on  his  girls — and  he  doubtless  had 
a  steady  job — for  he  asked  them  how  it  hap- 
pened that  they  had  returned  so  soon.  And 
Zipporah  put  her  arms  around  his  neck,  and 
placing  her  cheek  against  his  told  him  all  about 
the  gallant  and  courteous  stranger.  Having  an 
eye  to  business — as  behooves  a  father  with 
seven  daughters  on  his  hands — he  didn't  let 
this  eligible  young  person  slip,  but  sent  and  in- 
vited him  to  his  house  and  deluged  him  with 
hospitality  and  kindness — and  Moses  and  Zip- 
porah were  married  "  and  Moses 

was   content  to   dwell 

f&^i 
with  the  man." 

But  after  a  while,    ,  ^O*XX 
f)  •   •      I  • 
first  soft  and  low 

a        3 

- 


I3O    ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES. 

and  then  in  trumpet  tones,  ambition  whispered 
in  his  ear  that  he  could  deliver  the  Hebrews 
from  their  enemies.  "And  Moses  took  his  wife 
and  sons  and  set  them  upon  an  ass,  and  he 
returned  to  the  land  of  Egypt." 

And  I  suppose,  though  time  was  young  and 
wore  roses  then,  the  days  passed  slowly  to 
Zipporah  and  she  grew  tired  of  Moses  and  the 
Lord,  tired  of  the  rod  that  turned  into  a  ser- 
pent, of  the  strife  and  the  bondage  and  the 
river  of  blood;  tired  of  the  frogs  and  the  lice 
and  the  swarms  of  flies;  disgusted  with  the 
murrain  of  beasts  and  the  boils  and  terrified  at 
the  thunder  and  fire  and  rain  of  hail  and  all  the 
horrors  of  Egypt,  and  like  the  woman  of  to-day, 
when  things  get  too  awfully  unpleasant,  she 
made  it  uncomfortable  for  Moses,  and  "  he  sent 
her  back  "  to  her  father's  house  and  she  took 
her  two  sons  with  her. 

Afterward  when  Moses  became  famous  and 
illustrious  she  returned  to  him  without  asking 
his  consent,  or  even  notifying  him  of  her  inten- 
tion, as  far  as  we  can  learn  from  the  official 
records. 

She  took  her  father,  the  priest  Jethro,  along 
to  look  after  her  and  take  care  of  her  baggage 


ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES."     13! 

I  suppose,  and  we  imagine  he  didn't  relish  the 
task  much,  for  we  hear  him  saying,  rather  apol- 
ogetically we  think,  "  I,  thy  father-in-law  Jethro, 
am  come  unto  thee,  and  thy  wife,  and  her  two 
sons  with  her." 

I  fancy  Moses  knew  the  condition  of  a  man 
who  was  in  the  clutches  of  a  woman,  and  that 
woman  his  wife,  so  he  forgave  the  old  man, 
for  he  had  experience  himself,  "and  went  out 
to  meet  his  father-in-law,  and  did  obeisance, 
and  kissed  him;  and  they  asked  each  other  of 
their  welfare."  But  there  isn't  any  record  that 
he  kissed  his  wife,  or  even  shook  hands  with 
her,  and  we  infer  that  their  domestic  heaven 
was  not  all  blue  and  cloudless. 

Miriam,  although  a  prophetess  and  a  sister 
of  Aaron,  was't  very  angelic,  at  least  the 
glimpses  we  catch  of  her  don't  impress  us  with 
the  fact  that  she  was.  When  the  seashore  was 
strewn  with  the  dead,  white  faces  of  the 
drowned  Egyptians,  and  the  waves  were  flecked 
with  their  pallor  and  dashed  their  helpless  arms 
about,  Miriam  "took  a  timbrel  in  her  hand: 
and  all  the  woman  went  out  after  her  with  tim- 
brels and  with  dances."  And  Miriam  answered 


132    ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES   OF    MOSES." 


them,  "  Sing  ye  to  the  Lord,  for  he  hath  tri- 
umphed gloriously:  the  horse  and  his  rider 
hath  he  thrown  into  the 
sea." 

Now  this  may  have 
been    natural    and 
all  right  for  the 
times,  only  you 
know  it  don't 
look    well 
when 


compared  with 

the  action  of  our  women  of  to-day,  who  drop 

tears  and  roses  on  the  graves  of  their  enemies. 


ANOTHER    OF    "THE    MISTAKES    OF    MOSES.       133 

Further  on  we  find  Miriam,  womanlike, 
talking  about  Moses  because  he  had  married 
an  Ethiopian  woman,  and  saying  seditiously 
to  Aaron,  "  Hath  the  Lord  indeed  spoken  only 
by  Moses?  hath  he  not  spoken  also  by  us?" 

And  the  Lord  heard  it  and  his  anger  "was 
kindled  against  them,"  and  my  lady  "became 
leprous,  white  as  snow." 

As  she  was  the  one  punished  for  daring  to 
talk  rebellion  against  Moses,  God's  chosen  one, 
we  suppose  she  was  the  ringleader  and  insti- 
gator, and  Aaron  was  only  the  tool  in  this  plot 
that  budded  but  never  bloomed. 

"And  Aaron  looked  upon  Miriam,  and 
behold,  she  was  leprous,"  and  of  course  she 
threw  her  arms  around  his  neck  and  with 
streaming  eyes  besought  his  aid,  and  Aaron 
turned  the  smoothly  flowing  river  of  his  elo- 
quence into  resistless  words  of  appeal  and  said 
unto  Moses,  while  Miriam  knelt  at  his  feet: 
"  Alas,  my  Lord,  I  beseech  thee,  lay  not  the  sin 
upon  us,"  and  "let  her  not  be  as  one  dead;" 
and  Moses,  moved,  as  men  have  always  been 
moved,  by  woman's  tears,  "  cried  unto  the  Lord, 
saying,  Heal  her  now,  O,  God  I  beseech  thee," 
and  after  seven  days  the  curse  was  removed. 


SOME  MANAGING  WOMEN. 


SOME  MANAGING  WOMEN. 

The  women  of  the  Old  Testament  always 
wanted  something,  and  it  is  a  noticeable  fact 
that  they  always  asked  for  it — and  got  it  too. 

So  the  daughters  of  Zelophehad  had  a  griev- 
ance, and  they  didn't  go  among  the  neighbors 
bewailing  their  hard  lot,  they  didn't  sit  and 
wish  from  morning  till  night  that  something 
would  turn  up  to  help  them,  or  sigh  their  lives 
away  in  secret,  but  they  put  on  their  most 
radiant  attire  and  jauntiest  veils  and  "  stood 
before  Moses,  and  before  Eleazar  the  priest, 
and  before  the  princes  and  all  the  congrega- 
tion," and  demanded  their  father's  possessions, 
and  even  argued  the  question  reasonably  and 
logically.  There  was  not  any  of  the  St.  Paul- 
women-should-not -speak-in-meeting  doctrine 
about  the  Biblical  women  of  those  elder  days. 

They  didn't  endeavor  to  persuade  Moses' 
wife  to  influence  her  husband  to  use  his  power 
in  their  behalf.  They  did  not  retain  the  ser- 
vices of  Aaron,  the  finest  orator  of  the  day,  to 


138  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

plead  their  cause,  but  they  did  their  own  talk- 
ing, and  they  got  what  they  asked  for — their 
father's  possessions — and  husbands  thrown  in 
without  extra  charge.  Being  clever  as  well  as 
ambitious  women,  they  probably  foresaw  that 
husbands  would  follow  after  the  inheritance, 
and  although  they  would  not  ask  for  lords  and 
masters  of  course,  they  had  their  eyes  on  them 
just  the  same.  As  there  were  several  of  them, 
all  unmarried,  they  were  no  doubt  not  "  fair  to 
look  upon,"  so  they  laid  a  little  plot  to  secure 
husbands.  And  they  succeeded  and  were 
happy,  for  marriage  was  the  aim  and  end  of  a 
woman's  existence  then,  and  there  was  a  better 
market  and  more  of  a  demand  for  husbands 
than  in  these  modern  days. 

We  only   catch   a  glimpse    of   one    woman 
named  Achsah,  but  that  is  enough  to  show  us 
that  she  possessed  the  prevailing  and  prominent 
characteristic  of  all  the  other  "  holy  women. "- 
she  wanted  something. 

After  she  had  married  her  warrior  lover, 
who  conquered  Kirpathsepher  for  her  sweet 
sake,  the  very  first  thing  we  find  is  that  "she 
moved  him  to  ask  of  her  father  a  field."  Now 
naturally  a  young  man  would  dislike  to  approach 


SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 


139 


his  father-in-law  upon  such  a  delicate  subject, 
and  so  soon  too,  but  she  asked  him  and  he 
obeyed — like  all  the  men  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. 

And  even  then  she  was  not  satisfied  ;  but  of 
course  she  embraced  her  father  and  kissed  him, 
and  told  him  he  was  the  most 
indulgent  father  in  the  whole 
wide  world. 

Now  Caleb    no   doubt 
had  had  dozens  of  love 
affairs,    and    experience 
had  made  him  a  connois- 
seur of  female  character, 
and  understanding  all  their 
little    scheming   ways   and 
little  designing  tricks,  with- 
out beating  around  the  bush 
at  all  he  came  to  business  at 
once  and  asked, 

"What  would'st  thou?" 

"Give  me  a  blessing;  for  thou  hast  given  me 
a  south  land,  give  me  also  springs  of  water," 
she  said. 

Springs  of  water  were  a  bonanza  in  those 
days — something  like  a  gold  or  silver  mine  to 


140  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

us  moderns — but  she  had  requested  it  and  of 
course  he  could  not  refuse,  "and  he  gave  her 
the  upper  springs  and  the  nether  springs." 

And  it  came  to  pass  that  Joshua  sent  two 
men,  two  spies,  saying,  "Go  view  the  land,  even 
Jericho,"  and  I  suppose  they  disguised  them- 
selves and  went  by  secret  ways;  anyway  they 
eluded  the  vigilance  of  their  enemies  and 
entered  the  city,  even  Jericho,  and  let  me  whis- 
per it  in  your  ear,  they  went  to  see  a  woman 
named  Rahab — and  she  wasn't  a  very  nice 
woman  either — and  "lodged  there." 

But  their  visit  leaked  out,  as  such  things 
always  do  and  always  will,  though  the  stars 
should  pale  their  fires  to  shield  them,  the  moon 
withdraw  behind  the  clouds  to  hide  their 
shadows,  the  rain  pour  and  the  thunder  crash 
to  drown  their  footsteps.  Perhaps  the  children 
told  the  neighbors,  perhaps  the  hired  girl 
whispered  to  her  friend,  perhaps  some  jealous 
watching  lover  told  of  it,  but  at  any  rate  we 
read: 

"And  it  was  told  to  the  King  of  Jericho, 
saying:  Behold  there  came  two  men  in  hither 
to-night  of  the  children  of  Israel,  to  search  out 
the  country." 


SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN.  14! 

"And  the  King  of  Jericho  sent  unto  Rahab, 
saying:  Bring  forth  the  men  that  are  come  to 
thee,  which  are  entered  into  thy  house:  for 
they  be  come  to  search  all  the  country." 

Now  does  one  suppose  for  a  moment  that 
she  obeyed  the  mandate  of  the  King?  Of  course 
not,  if  one  is  a  student  of  the  Bible,  but  if  one 
is  not,  I'll  just  say  that  she  took  them  up 
through  the  skylight  and  hid  them,  piling  flax 
over  them,  and  then  she  said  innocently  and 
convincingly  to  the  King's  officers: 

"There  came  two  men  unto  me,  but  I  wist 
not  whence  they  were:  And  it  came  to  pass 
about  the  time  of  shutting  of  the  gate,  when  it 
was  dark,  that  the  men  went  out:  pursue  after 
them  quickly;  for  ye  shall  overtake  them." 

Then  she  went  up  on  the  roof  and  talked  to 
the  men  like  a  lawyer.  I  notice  that  these  old 
women — I  mean  women  of  old — were  all  good 
talkers,  and  they  didn't  speak  like  meek,  pas- 
sive, submissive  girls  wrought  up  to  sudden 
action  by  wrong,  indignation  or  revenge,  but 
they  spoke  with  a  freedom,  vigor  and  fluency 
that  betokened  everyday  practice. 

St.  Paul  says  that  woman  should  "Keep 
silence,"  and  that  "they  are  commanded  to  be 


142  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

under  obedience,"  but  he  evidently  had  some 
remarkable  ideas  upon  this  and  other  topics. 
Perhaps  he  never  had  read  the  official  records, 
and  we  know  he  was  never  married,  and  so  we 
don't  censure  him  so  much  for  his  ignorance  of 
female  character,  having  never  had  a  wife,  or, 
so  far  as  we  know,  a  love  affair,  for  what  does 
a  man  born  blind  know  about  the  sunshine,  or 
the  lightning's  awful  flash,  or  one  born  deaf 
know  of  the  pealing,  clashing  thunder? 

The  women  of  his  day  were  no  doubt  ob- 
streperous and  extravagant,  and  hence  his 
famous  but  perfectly  ineffectual  teaching  that 
they  should  not  "broider  their  hair,  or  wear 
gold  or  silver  or  costly  array,"  and  that  they 
shouldn't  talk  in  meeting,  and  if  they  wanted 
to  know  anything,  ask  their  husbands,  and 
drink  of  their  intellectual  superiority.  But  to 
return. 

So  Rahab  made  the  spies  swear  that  when 
the  doom  of  destruction  fell  upon  Jericho,  she 
and  her  father  and  mother  and  all  her  relations- 
in-law  should  be  saved,  and  then  she  let  them 
down  from  the  window  of  her  house,  which 
was  very  conveniently  built  upon  the  town  wall, 
with  a  scarlet  rope. 


SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 


143 


So  you  see,  by  deceit,  strategy,  disobedience 
and  a  succession  of  neat  little  lies,  she  thwarted 
the  King,  betrayed  the  city,  and 
saved  her  own  precious  self 
all  at  one  fell  swoop. 

When  the  walls  of  Jericho 
fell  and  childhood  in  its 
innocence,  ambitious  man- 
hood, fiery  youth,  despair- 
ing maidens  and  loving 
mothers,  were  swept  by 
maddening  flames  and  glit- 
tering swords  into  the 
oblivion  called  death,  from 
whose  silent  gloom  no  smile 
or  tear,  no  laughter  or  wail, 
ever  yet  has  come,  then 
Rahab  and  all  that  she  had 


144  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

was  saved.  She  had  asked  it,  and  schemed  for 
it,  and  of  course  she  did  not  fail. 

Next  we  come  to  Deborah,  a  prophetess, 
who  judged  Israel  at  that  time,  and  from  the 
little  that  is  said  of  her  husband,  we  infer  she 
was  the  head  of  the  house  and  ruled  him  be- 
sides attending  to  her  professional  duties. 

Well,  Deborah  sent  for  Barak  and  com- 
manded him  to  meet  "Sisera,  the  captain  of 
Jabin's  army,"  in  battle  array.  But  he  was 
afraid,  and  to  inspire  him  by  her  courageous 
example  she  went  with  him  to  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, and  every  man  of  Jabin's  host  "  fell  upon 
the  edge  of  the  sword;  and  there  was  not  a  man 
left."  But  Sisera  "  fled  away  on  his  feet "  to 
Jael,  the  wife  of  his  friend.  Sisera,  like  another 
defeated  general,  had  lost  his  horse. 

And  she  went  out  to  meet  him,  and  gained 
his  entire  confidence  by  smiles  and  deception, 
and  took  him  into  her  tent  and  gave  him  milk 
to  drink,  covered  him  with  a  mantle,  and  said 
in  her  sweetest  tones,  "  Fear  not."  Then  when 
he  slept  the  sleep  of  perfect  exhaustion,  defeat 
and  despair,  she  "  took  a  nail  of  the  tent,  and  a 
hammer  in  her  hand,"  and  softly,  with  bated 
breath  and  step  that  often  paused  and  ear  that 


SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 


bent  to  listen,  she  approached  him,  and  then — 
quicker  than  the  lightning's  flash  or  tiger's 
spring  "  she  smote  the  nail  into  his  temples,  and 
fastened  it  into  the  ground:  and  he  was  fast 
asleep  and  weary.  So  he  died." 

Nice  way  for  a  woman  to 
treat   her    husband's   friend, 
wasn't  it? 

Abimelech  killed  seventy 
of  his  brothers  to  become 
King,  and  after  wars  and 


battles  too  numerous  to  mention  he  came  to 
"  Thebez,  and  encamped  against  Thebez,  and 
took  it."  But  there  was  a  strong  and  mighty 
tower  in  the  city  and  a  thousand  men  and 


146  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

women,  stained  with  blood,  expecting  no  mercy, 
but  defiant  to  the  last,  fled  there  for  a  few  hours 
of  safety. 

"And  Abimelech  came  unto  the  tower  and 
fought  against  it,  and  went  hard  unto  the  door 
of  the  tower  to  burn  it  with  fire." 

And  all  the  men  stood  aghast,  helpless  and 
despairing,  waiting  a  terrible  death.  Then  a 
woman  with  a  vision  of  blood  and  moans,  dying 
men  and  ravished  women  before  her,  with  a 
courage  born  of  desperation  and  a  wit  sharpened 
with  intense  fear,  boldly  stepped  to  the  window 
ledge,  and  in  the  glare  of  bursting  flames  and 
the  sound  of  dying  groans  "cast  a  piece  of  a 
millstone  upon  Abimelech's  head,  and  all  to 
break  his  skull." 

"Then  he  called  hastily  unto  the  young  man 
his  armour-bearer,  and  said  unto  him,  Draw  thy 
sword,  and  slay  me,  that  men  say  not  of  me,  A 
woman  slew  me.  And  his  young  man  thrust 
him  through,  and  he  died,"  as  a  man  naturally 
would  who  had  been  hit  on  the  head  with  a  mill- 
stone and  pierced  through  with  a  sword;  and 
every  one  in  the  tower  was  saved. 

I'm  not  telling  you  this  to  harrow  up  your 
feelings,  but  just  to  show  you  that  the  holy 


SOME   MANAGING  WOMEN. 


147 


women   of  old   were   not   such   nonentities  as 
some  of  us  have  supposed. 

And  time,  undelayed  by  the  roses 
of  June  or  the  snows  of  winter,  by 
sunshine  or  starshine,  by  laughter 
or  sighs,  by  birth  or  death,  hurried 
on    and    the    Jews    fought    and 
triumphed,  bled  and  died  "  and 
did  evil,  and  the  Lord  delivered 
them  into  the  hands  of  the 
Philistines."     And   after    a 
while   Samson   was    born, 
and  what  do  you  suppose 


-. 

<    * 


148  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

he  did  just  as  soon  as  he  became  a  man? 
Why  he  went  down  to  Timnath  and  fell 
deeply,  desperately,  madly,  in  love  with  a  Phil- 
istine girl,  and  he  went  straight  home  and  told 
his  father  and  mother  about  it  and  they  did  not 
approve  of  it — they  never  do,  it  seems — but  he 
was  determined  to  have  her,  for  there  was  not 
another  female  for  him  in  the  whole  wide  world 
—  they  all  think  that  for  the  time  being  —  and 
of  course  he  married  her.  Then  he  made  a 
seven-day  feast,  and  unfortunately  he  amused 
the  company  with  a  riddle.  Of  course  his  wife 
was  dying  to  know  the  answer,  and  her  people 
threatened  her  if  she  did  not  find  it  out,  and 
altogether  it  was  a  lively  discussion,  and  she 
made  his  life  a  burden  and  a  delusion  and  she 
wept  before  him  and  said: 

"Thou  dost  but  hate  me  and  lovest  me  not; 
thou  hast  put  forth  a  riddle  unto  the  children 
of  my  people  and  hast  not  told  it  to  me."  And 
Samson  declared  he  hadn't  told  it  to  his  father 
or  mother  or  any  living  soul  and  swore  he 
would  not  tell  her — but  he  did.  For  "  she  wept 
before  him  the  seven  days  while  the  feast 
lasted,"  and  on  the  seventh  day,  exhausted  by 
her  upbraidings,  deluged  by  her  tears  and 


SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 


149 


wearied  by  her  everlasting  persistence,  he  whis- 
pered it  in  her  ear,  and  she  told  the  children  of 
her  people. 

It    is   safe   to   conclude   that    Samson   was 
angry,   and   the   wedding   feast 
broke   up    in    confusion    and 
dismay,    and    he    went    and 
killed  thirty  people,  and  the 
woman  who  had  "pleased  him 
well"  he  repudiated  with  such 
dispatch     that     it    suggests 
Idaho  and  the  modern  man, 
and  "Samson's  wife  was  given 
to  his  companion,   whom  he 
K  i    had  used  as  a  friend." 
The   views   we    get   of 


I5O  SOME    MANAGING   WOMEN. 

married  life  and  the  domestic  relations  in  the 
Old  Testament  make  us  almost  think  that  mar- 
riage was  a  failure — in  those  days. 

Then  Samson,  after  a  little  affair  which  I  do 
not  care  to  dwell  upon  with  a  woman  of  Gaza, 
who  was  no  better  than  she  should  have  been, 
fell  blindly  in  love  with  Delilah.  And,  being  in 
love,  he  profited  not  by  his  late  experience 
(what  man  or  woman  ever  does  who  is  in  love?) 
and  again  he  told  the  dearest  secret  of  his  heart 
to  a  woman,  because,  forsooth,  "  she  pressed 
him  daily  with  her  words,  and  urged  him,  so 
that  his  soul  was  vexed  unto  death."  And  then 
with  her  fine  arms  around  his  neck  and  her 
kisses  on  his  lips,  he  fell  asleep  on  her  knees — 
and  she  betrayed  him. 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM. 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM. 

The  great  array  of  the  Philistines  "  came 
and  pitched  in  Shunem,  and  Saul  gathered 
all  Israel  together,  and  they  pitched  in  Gilboa," 
and  unseen  by  any  of  the  mighty  hosts  death 
and  rapine,  treachery,  revenge  and  murder, 
smilingly  waited  for  the  desperate  battle. 

Then  Saul,  gazing  upon  the  great  army  of 
his  enemies  and  terrified  at  the  countless  thous- 
ands, thought  he  would  like  to  have  his  fortune 
told  and  said,  "Seek  me  a  woman  that  hath  a 
familiar  spirit,"  and  they  took  him  to  the  witch 
of  Endor,  and  Saul  prayed  her  to  materialize 
Samuel  for  his  especial  benefit.  And  did  she 
do  it?  Not  at  all,  or  at  least  not  until  she  had 
made  her  own  conditions.  "And  Saul  sware  to 
her  by  the  Lord,  saying:  as  the  Lord  liveth, 
there  shall  no  punishment  happen  to  you 
for  this  thing."  Aud  then  having  brought  the 
King  to  terms,  by  cunning  hocus-pocus  she 
summoned  Samuel  from  the  cold,  cold  grave. 
First  there  was  a  hush,  then  a  sweeping  in  of 


154  ANOTHER    GROUP   OF   THEM. 

chill,  damp  air,  a  scent  of  decay,  the  shaking 
out  of  a  shroud  that  never  rustled,  a  rush  of 
silent  footsteps,  and  suddenly  the  door  un- 
touched swung  noiselessly  open  and  Samuel, 
with  the  old  regal  air,  but  with  the  savor  of 
death  clothing  him  like  a  mantle,  and  the 
mildew  of  death  on  his  brow,  stood  before  them. 

You  will  observe  he  was  far  too  courteous  a 
ghost  to  censure  a  woman — who  really  was  the 
one  who  deserved  it,  since  she  had  wrought  the 
mischief — but  said  sternly  to  Saul : 

"Why  hast  thou  disquieted  me,  to  bring  me 
up?" 

'The  inference  is  that  after  all  his  triumphs 
and  defeats,  his  loves  and  illusions,  his  glory 
and  fall,  he  was  taking  the  sweet  and  silent  rest 
of  utter  oblivion,  and  very  naturally  he  did  not 
like  to  be  disturbed,  and  so  he  told  Saul 
some  things  that  very  nearly  scared  the  linger- 
ing hope  out  of  him,  and  almost  reduced  him 
to  a  condition  where  he  himself  was  a  fit  can- 
didate for  a  companionship  with  Samuel.  Then 
suddenly  the  air  grew  warmer  and  fresher,  the 
birds  began  to  twitter  in  the  first  faint  flush  of 
the  morning,  and  looking  around  one  could  not 
see  Samuel  any  more. 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM.        155 

Then  the  witch  of  Endor  wanted  Saul  to 
take  some  refreshment,  "But  he  refused  and 
said,  I  will  not  eat." 

But  the  woman  did  not  pay  any  attention  to 
his  refusal,  but  killed  a  calf  and  cooked  it,  and 
made  some  biscuits  "  and  she  brought  it  before 
Saul,  and  before  his  servants,  and  they  did  eat" 
of  course,  since  she  smilingly  invited  them  to. 

We  suppose  Saul's  wife — at  least  one  of 
them — was  a  lady  who  carried  things  with  a 
high  hand,  ruled  the  servants,  nagged  her 
husband,  delivered  curtain  lectures  by  the  hour, 
scolded  him  to  sleep  and  then  scolded  him 
awake  again. 

"And  whipped  the  children,  and  fed  the  fowls, 
And  made  his  home  resound  with  howls;" 

since  we  hear  him  saying  to  his  son  Jonathan, 
"Thou  son  of  the  perverse,  rebellious  woman." 

And  behold  Saul  and  David  were  the  firmest 
friends,  and  every  act  of  David's  pleased  Saul, 
and  every  smile  delighted  him,  and  Saul  hon- 
ored, trusted  and  advanced  him,  until  the 
women  came  to  have  a  hand  in  the  affair  and 
then  all  was  changed. 

It  seems  that  no  one  had  noticed,  or  dared 
to  give  voice  to  the  thought,  that  David  was 


156  ANOTHER    GROUP   OF   THEM. 

becoming  a  dangerous  rival  of  the  great  King, 
until  the  women,  with  keen  penetration,  looking 
upon  the  handsome  David,  saw  there  was  a 
greater  one  than  Saul.  And  so  one  day  when 
David  returned  from  a  great  slaughter  of  the 
Philistines,  the  girls  came  and  danced  and  sung 
and  waved  their  white  hands  and  smiled,  and 
despite  the  probable  indignation  of  the  King  at 
the  open  preference  and  approval  of  the  young 
man,  they  played  and  said,  "Saul  hath  slain  his 
thousands,  and  David  his  ten  thousands." 

And  Saul  was  jealous  and  "very  wroth"  and 
— well,  that  ended  that  friendship,  and  it  wasn't 
thS  last  time  that  women's  smiles  and  honeyed 
words  of  praise  have  blighted  the  friendship 
between  men  "whose  souls  were  knit  together." 

And  there  was  a  woman  whose  name  was 
Bath-sheba,  and  she  was  very  beautiful.  Her 
midnight  hair  curled  softly  away  from  her 
snowy  brow,  her  long  black  lashes  hiding  her 
love-lit  eyes  swept  her  rosy  cheeks,  and  her 
light  step  dashed  the  dew  from  the  grass  in  the 
garden,  while  the  blossoms  fell  from  the  boughs 
to  kiss  her  shoulders  as  she  passed. 

And  one  eventide,  David,  walking  upon  the 
roof  of  his  palace,  saw  her  bathing.  And  the 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM.        157 

last  red  rays  of  the  sinking  sun  touched  her 
softly  and  changed  her  into  a  perfect  statue  of 
warm  pink  marble,  and  David's  soul  was  rav- 
ished by  her  beauty;  and  with  the  impetuosity 
of  a  king  and  the  reckless  passion  of  a  lover  he 
sought  to  beguile  her.  And  Bath-sheba,  flat- 
tered by  the  preference  of  the  mighty  King, 
allured  by  imperial  grandeur  and  enticed  by 
royal  appeals,  tried  to  forget  the  husband,  who 
was  off  to  the  wars  and  away,  and  who  had 
in  the  first  flush  of  youth  won  her  by  his  love, 
his  "brow  of  truth"  and  a  soul  untouched  by 
sin — but  the  King — the  King,  the  pomp  and 
the  power  ! 

Ambition  was  roused  in  her  heart  and  she 
wanted  to  be  clothed  in  the  purple  and  fine 
linen  of  majesty,  and  to  wear  a  jeweled  crown 
upon  her  brow.  And  so  she  forgot  a  husband's 
love,  a  wife's  honor,  a  woman's  virtue,  and 
while  angels  wept  and  devils  laughed,  the  mem- 
ory of  Uriah  vanished  from  her  mind  as  a  star 
vanishes  before  the  fire-bursting  storm-cloud. 

Then  black-browed  conspiracy  and  red- 
handed  murder,  the  boon  companions  of  unholy 
love,  whispered  in  their  ears ;  and  though  a 


158  ANOTHER   GROUP   OF   THEM. 

vision  of  Uriah  often  rose  unbidden  and  unwel- 
come before  her,  it  was  dimmed  and  obscured 
by  the  glitter  of  jewels  and  the  gleam  of  costly 
array,  that  should  yet  flash  upon  her  arms  and 
throat  and  clothe  her  limbs. 

So  David  sent  for  Uriah  (we  presume  with 
the  consent,  perhaps  at  the  instigation  of  Bath- 
sheba,  for  there  is  no  wickedness  like  the  wick- 
edness of  an  ambitious,  faithless  wife),  honored 
and  feasted  him,  and  the  favored  young  man, 
happily  unconscious  of  his  wife's  treachery, 
perhaps  dreaming  bright  waking  dreams  of  the 
wealth,  fame  and  power  he  would  win  to  lay  at 
Bath-sheba's  feet,  felt  himself  honored  by  being 
made  a  special  envoy  to  carry  a  letter  from  the 
King  to  his  greatest  general,  Joab — and  in  it 
the  King  wrote : 

"  Set  ye  Uriah  in  the  fore-front  of  the  hot- 
test battle,  and  retire  ye  from  him,  that  he  may 
be  smitten  and  die;"  and  Joab  "assigned  Uriah 
unto  a  place  where  he  knew  the  valiant  men 
were,"  and  he  was  smitten  and  died. 

And  David  and  Bath-sheba  were  married, 
but  surely,  as  they  stood  by  the  cradle  of  the 
little  boy  who  died,  the  cold  hands  of  the 
valiant,  betrayed  Uriah  must  often  have  pushed 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM.        159 

them  asunder,  and  a  dark  shadow  born  of  their 
guilty  hearts  must  have  passed  between  them 
and  the  child.  Perhaps  when  the  feast  was  the 
gayest  a  battle  field  rose  before  them,  and  when 
the  music  was  the  loudest  and  the  sweetest, 
thrilling  through  it,  they  heard  a  dying  moan. 
When  Joab  wanted  to  reconcile  David  to 
Absalom,  he  wished  a  mediator  with  wit,  tact 
and  delicacy;  with  the  eloquence  of  an  orator 
and  the  subtle  flattery  of  a  Decius  Brutus,  and 
whom  did  he  choose?  A  man?  No:  He  sent 
for  "a  wise  woman,"  and  we  read  that  he 
instructed  her  what  to  do,  but  judging  from 
other  women  we  are  sure  she  instructed  him — 
anyway  she  went  to  the  King,  and  she  talked 
like  a  lawyer,  she  plead  with  eloquence,  she 
confessed  charmingly,  and  she  flattered  with 
the  cunning  of  her  sex,  saying,  "  for  as  an  angel 
of  God,  so  is  my  Lord  the  King  to  discern  good 
and  bad,"  and  "  my  Lord  is  wise,  according  to 
the  wisdom  of  an  angel  of  God,"  which  you  will 
admit  was  putting  it  pretty  strong.  But  then, 
men  who  didn't  work  for  their  living  in  those 
days  were  used  to  strong  language — of  praise. 
Perhaps  it  is  superfluous  for  me  to  add  that 
the  "wise  woman"  accomplished  her  mission. 


l6O  ANOTHER    GROUP   OF   THEM. 

We  are  told  in  poetic  language  that  David 
"  was  ruddy,  and  withal  of  a  beautiful  counten- 
ance, and  goodly  to  look  to,"  and  perhaps  that 
was  the  chief  reason  (although  women  always 
adored  a  man  of  valor,  intelligence  and  strength) 
that  "  Michal,  Saul's  daughter,  loved  David," 
and  thus  gave  him  the  proud  distinction  of 
being  the  first  man  who  was  ever  loved  by  a 
woman — at  least  the  first  one  we  have  any 
authentic,  official  record  of. 

Once  upon  a  time  David  had  prepared  to 
wipe  Nabal,  who  was  a  very  rich  man,  and  his 
followers,  from  the  very  face  of  the  earth, 
because  a  young  man  "told  Abigail,  Nabal's 
wife,  saying,  Behold,  David  sent  messengers  out 
of  the  wilderness,  to  salute  our  master,  and  he 
railed  on  them." 

Nabal  was  a  churlish  miser  and  little  to  be 
trusted,  and  it  seems  Abigail,  who  "was  a 
woman  of  good  understanding  and  of  a  beauti- 
ful countenance,"  had  heard  nothing  of  this 
little  affair,  but  she  was  equal  to  the  emergency 
and  she  at  once  prepared  many  presents  of 
wine,  and  figs,  and  raisins  and  other  good 
things,  and  made  haste  to  go  out  and  meet 
David,  and  if  possible  avert  the  impending 


ANOTHER  GROUP  OF  THEM.        l6l 

calamity.  "And  she  said  unto  her  servants,  Go 
on  before  me;  behold  I  come  after  you.  But 
she  told  not  her  husband,"  which  shows  conclu- 
sively that  although  he  was  "  churlish  and  evil  in 
his  doings"  she  was  not  under  his  dominion  to 
any  great  extent,  or  afraid  of  his  anger,  for  she 
took  things  in  her  own  hands  and  ran  the  gov- 
ernment to  suit  herself,  for  the  time  being  at 
least. 

So  she  met  David,  made  a  telling  speech, 
pleaded  eloquently,  flattered  skillfully,  and 
David,  who  never  could  withstand  the  beauty 
and  oratory  of  another  man's  wife,  granted  her 
every  request,  as  he  himself  confessed  and  said 
(I  notice  David  always  got  particularly  pious 
when  he  was  going  to  do  or  had  done  anything 
particularly  mean)  to  Abigail: 

"  Blessed  be  the  Lord  God  of  Israel  which 
sent  thee  this  day  to  meet  me:  and  blessed  be 
thy  advice." 

I  don't  know  what  kind  of  a  bargain  they 
had  made,  but  it  sounds  a  little  queer  to  hear 
him  saying  to  her,  "go  up  in  peace  to  thine 
house ;  see,  I  have  hearkened  to  thy  voice  and 
have  accepted  thy  person." 


l62  ANOTHER    GROUP   OF   THEM. 

Abigail  returned  home  and  found  her  hus- 
band had  been  having  a  gay  time  while  she  was 
away,  and  "  his  heart  was  merry  within  him,  for 
he  was  very  drunken,"  so  she  waited  till  the 
morning  "when  the  wine  had  gone  out  of  Nabal," 
as  it  is  quaintly  put,  and  then  she  "  told  him 
these  things,"  but  as  there  was  nothing  but  good 
news  in  "these  things"  she  must  have  told  him 
something  else  that  is  not  recorded,  for  "  his 
heart  died  within  him,  and  he  became  as  stone." 

Now,  I  wouldn't  cast  a  suspicion  on  Abigail 
for  any  consideration,  but  it  does  seem  a  little 
strange  that  ten  days  after  her  memorable  meet- 
ing with  the  handsome  and  musical  David,  "the 
Lord  smote  Nabal  that  he  died." 

"And  David  sent  and  communed  with 
Abigail,  to  take  her  to  him  to  wife." 

I  simply  mention  this  little  romance  to  prove 
that  there  was  no  evidence  of  obedience  in 
Abigail's  conjugal  relations. 


THE  FAMOUS  WIDOW  OF  MOAB. 


THE  FAMOUS  WIDOW  OF  MOAB. 


And  Naomi,  weary  of  the  land  of  Moab,  in 
the  shadows  of  whose  mountains,  guarded  by 
the  angel  of  eternal  sleep,  lay  the  graves  of  her 
husband  and  sons,  longed  in  her  loneliness  for 
the  friends  and  associations  of  her  youth.  Her 
heart  turned  back  to  the  old  house  at  home, 
where  there  is  always  more  sunshine  and  star- 
shine,  softer  breezes  and  sweeter  bird-songs, 
more  silvery  streams  and  fragrant  flowers,  than 
in  any  other  clime,  and  she  was  about  to  take 
her  departure  for  the  "  land  of  Judah." 

Now  it  seems  that  Naomi  was  a  very  love- 
able  elderly  lady,  since  her  daughter-in-law 
seemed  to  like  her  very  much,  though  I  haven't 
the  slightest  idea  that  Ruth  was  really  so 
madly  in  love  with  her  as  we  have  been  taught 
to  believe. 

It  appears  that  back  in  the  "  land  of  Judah," 
Naomi  had  a  kinsman  of  her  husband's,  "a 
mighty  man  of  wealth  of  the  family  of  Elime- 
lech  ;  and  his  name  was  Boaz." 


166  THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW   OF    MOAB. 

You  know  it  is  true  that  when  we  go  to  live 
in  a  strange  country,  we  tell  our  new  acquaint- 
ances, incidentally  and  casually,  perhaps,  but 
we  tell  them  just  the  same,  about  our  wealthy 
and  famous  relatives,  while  the  names  of  those 
who  were  hanged  because  they  may  have  loved 
horse  flesh  "  not  wisely  but  too  well,"  were  ar- 
rested for  gambling,  eloped  with  some  other 
woman's  husband,  or  made  garden  on  shares 
for  the  neighbors,  are  kept  locked  in  our  hearts 
as  too  sacred  to  mention  to  curious  ears.  Of 
course  Naomi  was  no  exception,  and  so  Ruth 
had  often  listened,  spellbound,  to  Naomi's  de- 
scription of  this  "mighty  man  of  wealth;"  of 
his  fields  undulating  in  golden  waves,  far  and 
near;  of  the  springs  that  gushed  and  sparkled 
and  flowed  down  the  hillsides;  of  the  shining 
streams  idly  wandering  in  his  verdant  valleys, 
whose  blue  waves  rose  to  caress  the  flowers  on 
the  bank  that  dipped  to  be  kissed;  of  his  costly 
array,  his  men  servants  and  maid  servants  and 
all  the  show  and  grandeur  that  was  his. 

So  Ruth  went  down  to  the  river  one  day 
and  gazed  at  her  own  reflection  in  the  liquid 
depths,  took  an  honest  inventory  of  her  charms, 
and  the  pride  and  confidence  of  the  embryo 


THE    FAMOUS    WIDOW    OF    MOAB.  \6j 

conqueror  thrilled  her  veins,  the  rose  hue  of 
triumph  dyed  her  dark  cheek,  and  knowing  that 
Boaz  was,  according  to  the  law  of  the  Jews,  her 
future  husband — if  she  could  please  him — she 
went  back  and  said  to  Naomi  with  the  inherent 
eloquence  of  a  brilliant  widow  bent  on  conquest: 

"Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  return 
from  following  after  thee  ;  for  whither  thou 
goest,  I  will  go  ;  and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will 
lodge;  thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy 
God  my  God: 

"Where  thou  diest,  will  I  die,  and  there  will 
I  be  buried.  The  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more 
also,  if  aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me." 

And  Naomi,  the  dear  old  lady,  was  very 
much  flattered  and  had  perfect  confidence  in 
her  daughter-in-law's  professions,  and  so  do  we 
also  believe  her  words — that  is,  moderately. 

When  she  says,  "thy  people  shall  be  my 
people,"  we  believe  she  meant  it — as  far  as  Boaz 
was  concerned  at  least;  but  when  she  adds  "thy 
God  shall  be  my  God  " — well,  we  have  known 
many  people  who  were  quite  pious  when  they 
were  about  to  do  something  they  wished  to 
cover  up,  and  their  prayers  were  a  little  more 
fervent  at  that  time,  just  to  throw  people  off 


l68  THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW   OF    MOAB. 

the  track,  so  to  speak.  And  Ruth  had  decided 
to  capture  Boaz's  heart  with  her  midnight  eyes, 
wear  his  gems  upon  her  breast,  and  plunge  both 
hands  deep  down  in  his  golden  shekels.  But 
of  course  she  didn't  intend  to  confide  this 
dead  secret  to  a  garrulous  old  lady,  and  have  it 
reach  the  ears  of  the  mighty  man  of  wealth 
perhaps,  for  the  cunning,  witty,  pretty  widow 
knew  that  a  man  never  likes  to  be  caught. 

So  one  day  she  (with  Naomi)  arrived  at 
Bethlehem  with  a  half  a  dozen  things  in  her 
favor,  any  one  of  which  would  have  made  her 
noted,  at  least. 

She  had  youth  (she  was  not  more  than 
twenty-eight  perhaps)  the  divine  gift  of  beauty, 
the  luck  of  being  a  stranger,  the  advantage  of 
being  a  widow,  the  prestige  of  a  convert,  and 
the  novel  notoriety  of  being  the  first  woman  in 
the  world  who  ever  was  in  love  with  her  mother- 
in-law. 

Is  it  any  wonder  "  that  all  the  city  was  moved 
about  them?" 

Well,  no  doubt  Ruth  found  out  all  she  wanted 
to  know  about  Boaz,  learned  his  habits  and 
characteristics,  made  all  the  inquiries  she  wished 
in  a  way  that  "was  childlike  and  bland,"  and  at 


THE    FAMOUS    WIDOW   OF    MOAB.  169 

last  having  her  arsenal  well  armored  with  the 
big  guns  of  wit  and  beauty  and  garrisoned  by 
facts  and  observations  and  the  experience  of  an 
ex-wife,  she  was  ready  for  Love's  war,  where 
the  bullets  are  soft  glances,  the  sword  thrusts 
kisses  and  the  dungeon  of  the  captive  is  the 
bridal  chamber,  and  she  went  to  her  mamma-in- 
law  and  said  sweetly,  "  let  me  go  now  to  the 
field  and  glean  ears  of  corn  after  him  (you  see 
she  admitted  she  was  after  him)  in  whose  sight 
I  shall  find  grace." 

"  And  she  went,  and  came,  and  gleaned  in 
the  field  after  the  reapers;  and  her  hap  was  to 
light  on  a  part  of  the  field  belonging  unto  Boaz." 
Wonderful,  wasn't  it,  that  it  was  her  "hap"  to 
light  on  a  part  of  the  field  belonging  to  Boaz? 

And  lo,  in  the  morning  ere  the  sun  was  half 
way  up  the  blue  sky,  Boaz  came  into  the  barley 
field  and  his  eyes  fell  upon  the  beauteous  Ruth 
gleaning  with  the  reapers,  and  delighted  at  the 
sight,  he  called  the  general  manager  and  said  : 

"Whose  damsel  is  this?"  And  he  answered 
and  said  :  "  It  is  the  Moabitish  maiden  that 
came  back  with  Naomi  out  of  the  country  of 
Moab." 


I/O 


THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW    OF    MOAB. 


It  seems  Boaz  had  never  seen  her  before, 
although  her  fame  had  reached  his  ears,  and  he 
spoke   to  her  softly   and 
kindly,  praised  her  for 
her  devotion  to   her 
mother-in-law  (you 
see   that    captured 
his      fancy      and 
admiration,  as  it 
has     every     one's 
since),    and    then 
she  smiled  and 


THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW    OF    MOAB.  171 

thanked  him  very  ardently,  and  then  the  wily 
widow  turned  her  pretty  head  aside  and  blushed. 
And  Boaz,  who  had  never  heard  the  advice  to 
"  beware  of  the  vidders,"  was  taken  in  and  done 
for  in  that  one  short  interview.  He  hung 
around  the  fields,  deserted  the  city,  cared 
naught  for  its  pleasures,  forgot  the  dames  of 
high  degree,  and  lingered  for  hours  among  the 
reapers  to  catch  a  glance  from  her  dark  eye,  or 
a  smile  from  her  ruby  lips,  and  I  suppose  they 
sometimes  rested  in  the  shade  and  talked  sweet 
nonsense,  or  sat  in  the  intoxicating  silence 
when  love  speaks  unutterable  things  to  the 
heart  alone,  and  the  "  old  sweet  story  was  told 
again"  in  the  harvest  field  near  Bethlehem. 

"  Boaz  commanded  his  young  men  saying, 
Let  her  glean  even  among  the  sheaves,  and 
reproach  her  not :  And  let  fall  also  some  of 
the  handfuls  of  purpose  for  her,  and  leave  them, 
and  rebuke  her  not." 

Having  alighted  upon  an  easy  task,  Ruth 
knew  it.  "  So  she  kept  fast  by  the  maidens  of 
Boaz  to  glean  unto  the  end  of  barley  harvest 
and  of  wheat  harvest :  and  dwelt  with  her 
mother-in-law." 


172  THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW   OF    MOAB. 

And  yet  it  seems  tne  gentleman  did  not 
propose.  So  Naomi  and  Ruth  talked  it  over 
together,  for  by  this  time  his  infatuation  was 
the  talk  of  the  city,  and  sentimental,  romantic 
old  Naomi,  who  must  have  been  a  charming 
woman  in  her  day,  was  interested  in  this  love 
affair.  For  no  matter  how  old  a  woman  or  man 
may  be,  the  perennial  stream  of  love  and  senti- 
ment flows  on  in  the  heart,  although  hid  'neath 
white  hairs  and  wrinkles,  and  bound  by  the 
wintry  shackles  of  age  and  custom ;  still  it  is 
there,  and  often  breaks  the  icy  barriers  of  the 
years  and  betrays  itself  by  a  late  marriage,  or 
in  the  matchmaking  proclivities  of  all  elderly 
women. 

And  Naomi  gave  Ruth  some  instructions 
which  we  blush  to  think  of,  but  she  followed 
them  implicitly.  And  the  middle-aged  Boaz 
was  caught.  We  suppose  he  was  forty-five  or 
fifty  from  the  fact  that  he  called  Ruth  "my 
daughter,"  and  commended  her  because  she 
didn't  run  after  the  gilded  youths  of  society,  but 
preferred  him  above  them  all.  And  Boaz  and 
Ruth  were  married,  and  like  most  marriages 
between  widows  and  old  bachelors  it  proved  a 
happy  one. 


THE    FAMOUS    WIDOW    OF    MOAB. 


173 


But  Ruth's  shrewd  scheming  and  successful 
venture  as  related  in  the  inspired  records  con- 
firms our  belief  that  it  was  Boaz  the  "  mighty 
man  of  wealth,"  and  not  Naomi's  love  or 
Naomi's  God  that  induced  Ruth  to  emigrate  to 
the  city  of  Bethlehem. 


We  are  told  that  Jezebel,  unknown  to  her 
husband,  "wrote  letters  in  her  husband's  name 
and  sealed  them  with  his  seals,"  and  had  a  man 
stoned  to  death  without  his  knowledge — not  the 
man's,  but  her  husband's. 


174  THE    FAMOUS   WIDOW    OF    MOAB. 

That  doesn't  look  as  if  she  were  ruled  over 
much,  does  it? 

The  sacred  history  says,  speaking  of  Hagar 
and  Ishmael,  "  and  his  mother  took  him  a  wife 
out  of  Egypt "  which  means  that  she  selected 
the  girl  and  told  him  to  marry  her  —  and  he 
obeyed.  And  we  find  that  Solomon  gave  to 
the  queen  of  Sheba  "whatsoever  she  asked," 
which  is  an  example  of  generosity  we  would 
recommend  to  the  men  of  to-day. 


HE  GAVE  IT  UP  TOO 


HE  GAVE  IT  UP  TOO. 

I  had  reached  this  point  in  my  study  of  the 
Bible,  when  one  evening,  just  as  I  had  seated 
myself  to  begin  work  and  was  idly  sharpening 
my  pencil,  the  door  bell  rang. 

I  had  not  seen  my  lover  for  weeks;  not  since 
he  had  so  sarcastically  advised  me  to  peruse 
the  Scriptures.  I  had  waited  for  his  coming, 
but  in  vain;  the  mail  brought  no  letter;  he  sent 
no  word  by  friend  or  foe.  And  I  made  no  sign. 
His  had  been  the  fault  and  his  should  be  the 
reparation,  and  so  a  profound  silence  fell  like  a 
pall  between  us. 

But  love,  the  god  of  gods,  strung  the  invisi- 
ble wires  of  mental  telegraphy  between  our 
hearts,  and  over  the  mystic,  unseen  lines  our 
thoughts,  bright  as  hope,  dark  as  sin,  lighter 
than  the  thistle  down,  heavily  charged  with  the 
electricity  of  doubt  and  trust,  faith  and  fear, 
love  and  longing,  flew  noiselessly  back  and  forth 
through  the  stillness  and  drew  us  unconsciously 


1/8  HE    GAVE    IT   UP   TOO. 

together;  and  so  it  happened  that  he  stood  upon 
the  doorstep  and  pulled  the  bell. 

There  was  always  a  triumphant  peal  to  his 
ring  that  seemed  to  say  to  my  heart,  "  Lo,  the 
conquering  hero  comes."  And  now  that  vital 
organ  bounded  gladly  in  my  breast,  then  stood 
still;  my  pulses  throbbed  with  delight  and 
triumph.  Ten  minutes  before  I  would  have 
thrown  the  world  away,  if  it  had  been  mine,  for 
one  smile  from  his  lips,  but  now — I  seized  my 
pencil  and  wrote  rapidly  on  the  tablet  on  my 
knee  as  he  entered  the  hall,  came  into  the  room, 
and  stood  beside  me,  then  with  a  little  start  I 
looked  up  and  exclaimed  in  feigned  surprise: 

"You  here?" 

"  I  think  I  am,"  he  said,  "but  if  you  want 
me  to,  I'll  look  in  the  mirror  to  make  sure." 
And  then  we  both  laughed,  for  'tis  so  easy  to 
laugh  when  one  is  happy  and  all  the  world 
is  gay. 

"Well,"  said  he,  sitting  down  beside  me, 
clasping  my  hand  in  his  as  lovers  sometimes  do, 
and  taking  up  the  conversation  where  it  had 
been  dropped  weeks  and  weeks  before,  "  they 
say  you  can  buy  a  good  cooking  stove  for  forty 


HE    GAVE    IT   UP   TOO.  179 

dollars — and  I've  had  my  salary  raised  ten  dol- 
lars a  month." 

Then  I  smiled  and  he  said  abruptly: 
"  When  are  you  going  to  marry  me?  " 
"  I  haven't  completed  my  study  of  the  Bible 
yet,  and  I  don't  think  I   could  be  submissive, 

and " 

"Oh,  fiddlesticks!"  he  exclaimed,  impolitely 
interrupting  me,  "  I  don't  want  you  to  be  sub- 
missive; I  just  want  you  to  love  me  and — and — 
boss  me,"  he  added,  in  the  very  depth  of  re- 
pentance. 

"But  you  demanded  obedience,"  I  insisted. 
"  I  was  foolish  then,"  he  said  softly,  "  but 
absence  from  you  and  silence  has  taught  me 
wisdom.  When  I  left  you  and  you  made  no 
sign,  sent  no  word  of  recall,  left  the  dread  quiet 
unbroken,  I  told  myself  that  you  cared  nothing 
for  me,  and  I  tried  desperately  to  fall  in  love 
with  some  other  girl,  but  they  were  all  'flat, 
stale  and  unprofitable'  compared  to  you.  There 
was  no  light  in  their  eyes,  no  roses  on  their 
cheeks,  no  pleasure  in  their  presence,  no  rap- 
ture in  their  touch  —  and — Oh,  hang  it!  you 
know  I  can't  talk,  but  I  love  you,  and  as  long  as 


i8o 


HE   GAVE    IT   UP   TOO. 


cooking   stoves   and   marriage   licenses  are  so 
cheap  and  ministers  are  so  plenty  what's  the 
matter  with  having  a  wedding  to-morrow?" 
And  I  said — but  never  mind  what  I  said. 


'y»Vv!  &  <^£^"i-Si&i2. ^/5L«;J' 

^AVsg/'A  *y  ckfe*  s^-*2V  <$£>  tvi » »^s  <TV 


